Dogs Hunt in Packs
by SamuraiDemonPuppy
Summary: In a postNaraku world, InuYasha and Kagome discover their true destiny is to marry then raise the young warriors who will help the gods rein in a renegade god. That is, if they don't KILL them first. Chapter 65 - Tetsusaiga's ailment is attacked.
1. Chapter 1 Choices

_Author's Notes: This is the opening salvo for what will ultimately be a large work. The basic thought that got me started after my rotten daughter got me hooked on InuYasha was "Man, his kids would be a pistol to raise." My second thought was "That sounds like fun" and I was off. First, of course, you have to set the stage. So bear with me for a few chapters while I get everyone set in place..._

Chapter 1 - Choices

Mama knocked on the door to Kagome's room and peeked in. "May I come in?" she inquired.

"Oh, hi, Mama," Kagome replied, finishing writing with a flourish and closing her books. "I'm just finishing. Wow, I can hardly believe it! One more set of finals and I'm done for good!" It was a marvelous feeling to not have school hanging over her head any more; high school was finally winding down to its end.

Mama entered the room and settled herself on Kagome's bed. "Yes," she sighed. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You don't seem to have any plans for what you're going to do after graduation. You haven't applied to any colleges and you haven't been looking for a job."

Kagome sat silently, looking at the floor. It was true. She hadn't done anything a person usually does to prepare for life after school.

Her mother continued, "It's InuYasha isn't it? He's here quite often."

"Mama, he's lonely," Kagome replied, "He doesn't have many friends and he's at loose ends right now."

Mama looked directly at her daughter. "Kagome, I'm not blind. There's more to it than that, isn't there? He lights up as soon as he knows you're here. For all that you spend half your time squabbling with him, you glow when he's around and spend the rest of the time watching and listening for his arrival."

Kagome looked out her window. Was it that obvious? She had tried to be circumspect, especially since, even after all this time, she really wasn't sure where she sat in InuYasha's world. He was here all the time, he was jealous about being the only man in her life, but then ... nothing. He had yet to make any move more romantic than the quick hug now and then.

Mama waited a moment for Kagome to comment, then asked "What's going on? Is he waiting for you or are you waiting for him?"

Kagome closed her eyes as she gathered her thoughts. "I wish I knew. In some ways he's so different from us."

"Tell me about it," Mama said.

"It's awfully complicated, Mama."

"I have time. Please tell me." For all that Mama spoke quietly, this was a command, not a request.

Kagome drew in a shaking breath and looked at the ceiling. Where should she begin? InuYasha was a half-demon, a hanyou. He generally looked like a stripling boy of somewhat over medium height who was just starting to fill out, but there were some telling differences. He had claws, not fingernails, rather larger fangs than humans, a luxuriant mane of silver-white hair, amber gold eyes with slit pupils and pricked dog's ears perched on top of his head. If he wasn't immortal, he was at least very long lived. He carried a sword with him at all times, a legacy of his father. Though the sword normally looked like a battered old relic, handled correctly by the right person, it had awesome powers to command.

"You already know what he is. He's a hanyou, his mother was human and his father was a dog demon, so he's kind of stuck between two worlds. He's not quite human and not completely demonic. Sometimes he's hard to figure because of that. Is he acting from a human or a doggish impulse? I'm not sure if he wants to be near me because he wants me as a lover or as a dog's special person.

"Life hasn't been kind to him. He never really knew his father; he died when InuYasha was very little. His mother died too when he was just a child and he's been on his own since then, living in the forest as best he can.

"He fell in love once with a priestess and it turned tragic. A jealous dying bandit sold his soul to demons to gain new life, then he tricked InuYasha and Kikyo into betraying each other. Kikyo sealed InuYasha to a tree, our sacred tree out in the shrine grounds in fact, and died soon afterward. That's where I found him fifty years later when I fell into the well the first time. He woke up shortly after I arrived and I unsealed him. He didn't want to have anything to do with me at first. I was too much like his priestess and he was still very hurt and angry over what had happened.

"We found out later it wasn't a coincidence that I was like her. It turns out I am her reincarnation. While he was getting used to that and working out the notion that while I had her soul, I was my own person with my own life and ideas, an ogress created a body of Kikyo's grave soil and ashes and resurrected her. I lost my soul for a little while, then it split. I got most of it back, but she kept enough to retain her thoughts, feelings and memories.

"InuYasha had never really fallen out of love with Kikyo. He was still as tied to her as ever, even though he was falling in love with me. I finally figured out that there was no way I could win a tug-of-war for him; I conceded my claim to him in exchange for being allowed to stay on as his friend. It ... hurt. It was all I could manage to bear seeing them together.

"That didn't happen too often; Kikyo preferred to work alone. I think deep down, at the bottom of her heart, she knew her time had passed, but we were working toward the same goal and our paths crossed at times.

"She eventually died again, as good a death as could be had, in InuYasha's arms, and ascended to Heaven, her soul finally at peace. InuYasha was devastated. It took quite a while for him to pull himself together.

"We finished the job; destroyed Naraku and dealt with the Shikon jewel. Miroku and Sango have since married; I came back here to finish school and figure out what I should do. InuYasha and Shippo are living in the forest.

_"_And, now, I don't know what. It's been ... years. He keeps visiting, wants my company, but never moves it along. Does he just want a friend? Is he afraid to go for it? Is he afraid for me or has his heart had all the pain it can handle? Things go wrong for him so much. He may be afraid if he gets closer, I'll be hurt or killed. He's pushed me away before trying to protect me. Or maybe, being a demon, he just doesn't realize how much time has passed."

Mama had listened quietly to this recital. Now she looked seriously at her daughter and said, "Kagome, you can't wait your whole life for something that may never happen. At some point you have to move. You have to choose and go on. And you should do it soon, before you no longer have a life to live. It's been years you said."

Kagome sighed. Her mother's points were inescapable, but it was still going to be very hard to push InuYasha. "I'll talk to InuYasha, Mama. I promise."

InuYasha typically visited Kagome every two to three days. This time, now that she had to talk to him seriously and was straining to screw up her nerves for it, he was gone for ten days. Kagome had gone from mildly surprised to somewhat worried to outright terrified. When he finally did blow in, her nerves had been stretched to the snapping point. She could barely contain her fury at his having scared her so badly.

It didn't help that, now that he was here, he was in a downright foul mood. He had greeted her by stomping into her room and slamming the books she had loaned him onto her desk with a resounding whack, bellowing "This is stupid! I don't know why I'm bothering!", then flopping onto her bed and glaring at her with his ears laid back flat against his head.

Ears ringing, Kagome bit back the snapping response she wanted to fling back. Instead, she took a deep breath, held it for a count of five, then asked as calmly as she could, "What's stupid?" It still sounded shaky.

"That!" he said, jabbing a finger at the books.

She counted to five again. "Why?"

He evaded her glance, looking sullenly out the window. "It just is."

"Are you stuck?" she asked. He shook his head and continued to stare out the window. Kagome wrinkled her nose and thought. After one excruciatingly embarrassing incident where it had come out that InuYasha was illiterate, she had been teaching him the basics of reading, writing and math. He was generally cooperative, after all it made an excuse to visit, but he did get temperamental when frustrated. Sometimes she needed to beguile it out of him.

Another deep breath, ... three, four, five. "So, show me where things look funny, and we'll..."

"I said I'm not stuck!" he snapped.

"So what is your problem?!" she snarled back, her composure shot to hell.

He looked briefly taken aback at her ferocity, then ramped up for a full-scale brawl.

By the time they were bellowed out, they had called each other every name in the book and flung several wild accusations back and forth, each scoring several stinging blows on the other's psyche. InuYasha was sulking thirty feet up in the Sacred Tree while Kagome licked her wounds in the bathtub inside.

Great. Wonderful. That was brilliant. Just the way to open a discussion about the rest of her life. She was at least as angry at herself as she was annoyed with him. She sank down into the tub until just her eyes and nose were out of the steaming water. How was she going to salvage this one? After a blowup like that, she doubted he'd come out of the tree for at least three days. She was going to have to apologize; she wondered if he was ready to listen to it. It took him a long time to spin down from a fight. She sighed, blowing some bubbles into the water. Maybe if she put together a peace offering, some of his favorite foods...

Mama stepped out of the house for a moment to check on InuYasha. That had been quite some row he and her daughter had had. There had been a rather desperate edge to his voice during the fight. Something was disturbing him deeply, though what it was had not come out in the fight.

Mama liked InuYasha. The boy meant well for all that chaos seemed to blossom around him. He didn't know the first thing about modern times and had some strange notions about how the world worked, but he was obviously devoted to Kagome and he tried so hard.

She studied him for a few minutes as he sat in the tree. He looked down at her for a moment then resumed his brooding without comment. He looked utterly miserable.

InuYasha's temper had cooled quite a while ago. That fight had been more a venting of pent-up anxiety than a real battle. He had smelled Kagome's tension the instant he had walked in the room and it had set off his own overwrought nerves. He tried to shake out his ears, release the strain that was starting to give him a headache, but they refused to cooperate, remaining plastered miserably against his head.

He'd been seeing it coming for a while now. It always started the same way, with his new friend's parent studying him from a distance. Mama had been watching him lately. It was the first step in a dance he knew all too well.

A door opened at the house down below and Kagome came out with a plate of food. The smell of teriyaki drifted up to him, one of his favorites. His stomach lurched; the second step of the dance was playing out below him, the appeasing of his spirit. After he accepted the gift came the third step, where he was told gently but firmly it was time to move on.

He hunched up even tighter. He didn't want this, not now, not this time. Maybe he could stay in the tree forever.

"InuYasha?" Kagome called, peering up at him as he sat on his branch. He steadfastly ignored her, only an uncontrolled twitch of his ear showed he had heard anything.

"Would you please come down?" No. No. No. He shifted slightly, nerves winding up again, but still he ignored her, refusing to look.

"Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. Can we talk?" Her voice quavered a bit as she called up. He held himself firm, though he was shaking.

"It's really hard to talk with you way up there. Come down. Please." She was starting to sound a little annoyed. His ear twitched again of its own accord. He still refused to acknowledge her.

"Why you stubborn...," Kagome muttered, then called, "Do I have to make you?"

He looked down quickly, startled. She wouldn't! She had that set look in her eye, the one that said 'don't mess with me'. Yes, she would. He weighed whether or not he wanted to come whistling down due to her invoking the spell on the prayer beads bound around his neck, just for the sake of delaying this a few more seconds. That would be a hell of a thing to remember her by. Reluctantly, he gave in, slipping his leg over the branch and dropping down to land beside her. They just stared at each other for the longest time, lost in their thoughts. Then they sat down beside each other on a rock wall near the Sacred Tree.

Some time later, they had fumbled their way through apologies, but little else. InuYasha glanced at Kagome who was still sitting on the wall beside him, the plate of food between them untouched. She had been silent for a long time and was no longer looking at the Sacred Tree; her gaze was locked on something invisible and very far away. He had had enough of waiting; it was best to just get this over with.

"Kagome, you can just say it. I've heard it before."

She blinked and started, then looked at him, startled. "Huh?"

"On second thought, maybe I'll just shove off without hearing it. You can keep the food; I'm not going to do anything to you or your family, but I'm not really hungry right now." His stomach growled its protest to that statement, but he ignored it, slid off the wall and started walking quickly toward the well house.

"W..Wait! What are you talking about?" He heard her land on the ground and start her pursuit; he picked up his pace a bit.

He heard her speed up to a run to catch him and spun around, snarling, "You don't have to pretend! I know how it works. Your family has decided it's best if I weren't around, so I'm going, all right? I just don't want to hear that bullshit right now."

She pulled up short, looking dumbfounded. "Wh .. What?"

He took the opportunity to bolt for the well house. He had nearly reached the door when he heard a sharp cry of "Sit!" He went crashing to the ground at the threshold, pulled down by the prayer beads around his neck. A moment later, Kagome was sitting on his back, with a knee on his neck.

"We're going to talk," she said grimly. "And it's not what you think it's about."

"I have to make some choices pretty soon. I need to know what's up with us. We've been hanging around sitting on a wall for a long time, doing nothing. But I'm running out of time to wait."

They were back on the rock wall, the plate between them. InuYasha had started nibbling at the offering and Kagome had helped herself to a piece or two also. She looked at the ground beneath her feet and sighed. "I'm not immortal, InuYasha. I have to live my life now while it's still here. I'm 18 now, nearly 19. It's time for me to choose what I'm going to do. Do I go with you or do I end it now and stay here?"

_Either come in or go out; you can't stand in the doorway all day_. That was how Mama put it when she was scolding Buyo for standing too long at the door. So, Mama was different from all the rest. She said he could come in; just don't stand in the door. He could be a part of Kagome's life, but only if we went the distance.

He was completely unprepared for this. His mind seemed to have frozen, he was ringing so hard from the shock of not hearing what he had been dreading so much.

Kagome waited a while for him to respond, but still he could not summon a coherent thought. Finally, she looked at him, worried.

"So, what are you thinking?" she asked softly.

"I... I don't know. I've never even considered anything like this." He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to get his mind to work, to look at the new possibilities.

"What?!" Kagome was starting to look pissed.

"Wait! No, wait! That came out wrong. I... I've never been able to consider this before. Any time I ever had a friend before, the village would throw me out just as soon as they knew. So... I... I've just been trying to not get thrown out. Kikyo... Well, there was just her and her sister. And she was the priestess. But still, I always met her in the forest. And even then...," he trailed off. He didn't need to finish the thought, Kagome knew the rest.

"Can I have a little time to think? I... like I said, I never even thought it possible." He looked at her beseechingly, begging for a chance to reorient himself around the new possibilities.

Kagome studied him quizzically, then nodded. "OK. I have some time, maybe a month. But then, I need to know what's going on."

"It won't be easy," he warned her. "People don't like it when women take up with demons. And I'm not even a full demon. I'm a hanyou bastard, which is even worse. If you come with me, you'll be an outcast..."

"Are you telling me to go?" she asked.

"No!" he whispered vehemently. "I couldn't bear it."

"Then what?"

"I don't know. Stay with me somehow."

"Stay with you how?" she whispered. "As a friend? A lover? Maybe your wife? The longer I'm with you, the harder it will be to start again here. At some point, I won't be able to."

"I..I...need some time to figure it out." It was all the answer he had.

"Like I said, I have a few weeks. Think about it, then we'll talk."

1


	2. Chapter 2 Decisions

Chapter 2 - Decisions

"Think about it", Kagome had said. InuYasha leaned back against the trunk of the tree he was sitting in and closed his eyes. He couldn't not think about it, his mind had done nothing but swirl around the topic for days, weaving and dancing along many paths, but each path he took led to either pain or agony. Letting her go to live her life in her own time made the most sense on the face of things; she would be safe and comfortable there, no one would despise her for associating with him. His time was torn apart by war and the demons such chaos spawned. Death waited around far too many corners. And he seemed to be cursed; every time someone got close to him, appalling things happened. But each time he thought of leaving her, his heart lurched so badly he felt dizzy and nauseous. His life before Kagome had been so bleak. He had just lived day to day, glad only that he had survived another night, feared by men, scorned by demons, shunned by both. When she was beside him, none of that mattered, there was hope again. It steadied him; she had truly given him back his soul.

For a wild moment, he entertained the notion of living in her time, but there was no way he could manage there. He'd just be a useless freak. Every time he went, he did something stupid or ridiculous. He really didn't understand the rules, and he was quite aware of Kagome's efforts to keep him contained on the shrine grounds. He couldn't live that constrained.

Wondering slightly about how much he needed her presence (_when had that happened?_), InuYasha considered his options for bringing her here, to his time. The hanyou viewed himself as an outcast, or, at best, a barely tolerated fringe element. When he was alone, he lived in the forest. He generally slept in a tree or found a dry hole when the weather was bad. He knew Kagome would not find that acceptable. She had always appreciated it when Miroku had scammed a night's lodging in a house, even if his methods were questionable.

It seemed a poor deal for Kagome to live near him for the sake of a friendship. She had been very accommodating up to this point, but their last conversation had dropped some strong hints of her real desires.

But his own experiences of demons and their mortal loves had left a bitter taste in his mouth. Somehow, the demon never seemed to be around when his lover and their child needed him most. He didn't want to do that to Kagome. He also didn't want her to have to endure the scorn of her fellow mortals for taking up with the likes of him. But, inside, his heart sang at the thought of her beside him. He would even swear the oaths of marriage, bind himself to her. The word "wife" had a sweet sound.

Where could he possibly take Kagome that she wouldn't be despised? Even his mother, a princess with Imperial connections, had been barely tolerated after his father had taken her. Very few had known about Kikyo and him until long after her death, but it had still been enough to destroy her.

The old priestess, Kaede, straightened and stretched her back, easing the tight spot between her shoulders, then cast a quick glance toward a nearby tree. She was kneeling in her garden plot, weeding. She was intensely aware of  InuYasha's eyes boring a hole in the back of her head. After many years of close association, she was used to his moods, but that didn't mean she didn't still find some of them irritating. This time, he had been sitting in that tree for three days straight, staring at her and glowering.

She stood up and glared back at him. "All right, InuYasha, are you going to tell me what's up with you or are you going to stare at me for the rest of your life?"

InuYasha continued staring.

"Well?"

"Keh!" InuYasha looked away for a moment, then his eyes snapped back to her.

"WELL?"

He looked away, then out at the sky. His eyes returned to her, but this time he looked thoughtful, and then almost pleading. Kaede had never seen him like this. He never asked for anything and he accepted help only grudgingly. What did she have that he wanted so badly he would spend three days screwing up the nerve to ask? The intensity of his gazed slowly increased until he was staring a hole in her head again, but still he said nothing.

Kaede softened her voice and said kindly, "InuYasha, until you ask, you won't have an answer."

His eyes dropped again, then returned fiercely. "I have no claims on you. I expect nothing." It was like he was challenging her, not seeking a favor.

Kaede sighed. He was so proud and prickly, he let no one close without a fight. "InuYasha, I would be your friend if you would let me. I will help you if I can. Ask."

His eyes flickered and he looked very uncertain. Finally, he said, "I want to bring Kagome back to live with me. But I won't do it unless I can find a place where she won't be scorned."

"Ahhh. So. You want to live here."

He nodded.

She looked up at him with approval. "So. I will argue the case for you before the elders. And I will ask the gods to favor you."

"Thank you." He held her eyes for a moment longer, then left abruptly.

Kaede dusted off her clothes, put away her tools, then climbed to the shrine. It was best to start with the prayers. She was going to need all the help the gods could give her.

_ Perhaps it will work after all. I thought you were mad when you insisted we build that portal through the well. _

_ Ah, the currents __are__ shifting. I feared it had gone stagnant, there had been so little motion for so long. _

_ This appears chancy. There are ripples, but no defined motion. _

_ The old woman calls from the past. She seeks assistance in entreating her fellow elders. _

_ There are many hearts still hard from the losses of the day of betrayal. _

_ He has harmed no one since then. They honor the girl. _

_ Some doubt she is enough to hold him. _

_ I see these souls open to further consideration. _

_ If we stir here... _

_ Yes. That should aid the currents. _

The meeting of the village elders was in full swing. InuYasha could hear portions of it from his vantage point at the edge of the village. He had heard most of the caustic remarks that wafted his way many times in his life, but they still galled him. It didn't sound like it was going well. Feeling sick, he made his way back to the forest to mourn the loss of his hopes in private.

Kaede tramped down yet another game trail in the forest. After his request, she had expected it to be easier to find InuYasha, but so far he had eluded her.

"InuYasha!" she called again; she was becoming rather annoyed.

"You don't have to yell." The voice came from directly overhead. She looked up and found him brooding on the branch of a tree.

"You might have made it easier to find you," she scolded.

"Keh!" He looked sullen and moody.

"Well, I got you a conditional approval," she announced. "The village would prefer that you live no closer than the edge of the forest."

InuYasha's eyes sparked angrily. "Idiots! It's not like I want to be that close to them either!"

"Were you listening in?" Kaede asked sternly. It went far toward explaining his mood.

"It's not like I could miss it the way they were carrying on."

"There were several that spoke in favor of you too. As usual, the angry ones were the loudest."

He glared into space for a moment longer, then glanced down at her, still bristling slightly.

"And what are the rest of the conditions?"

"They want you to earn your keep."

"What?!" InuYasha was outraged. "First they half throw me out, then they demand that I serve them?!"

"Hear me out. The council is willing to build you a house at the edge of the forest and give you a portion of the harvest. In return, you will keep the village and its fields free of demons, brigands and other threats to our safety. And I personally ask that Kagome assist me with the temple duties. I'm not a spry as I used to be."

InuYasha pondered a while. Put that way, the offer was much more generous than he had expected.

"Is there anything else?"

"That's the deal."

"All right. You'll hear from me soon."

Kagome sat on a log in the forest near the well and closed her eyes, letting the sunshine warm her. "Oh, it's so much nicer here than it is on my side today," she said. "It's been raining for three days straight."

Her high school finals were over and his last couple of visits had been marked with an undercurrent of expectancy. She hadn't said anything, but it was clear she was waiting for his answer to their talk.

InuYasha smiled slightly, watching her and wondering how to open the subject of possible marriage. Talks like this always unnerved him. Even with Kagome, he could very rarely open up about his desires. He seldom indulged in dreams or hopes; the life of a demon half-breed had taught him often enough that such things were either quickly quashed or they went cruelly awry.

Kagome looked up at him. "You're awfully quiet," she remarked. "And I've scarcely seen you for days". She smiled with friendly curiosity, waiting for a response.

Unsure how to proceed, InuYasha hesitated a moment, then stiffened as an unwelcome scent crossed his nose.

"Koga!" he exclaimed with disgust. "What's he doing here?" He hadn't seen the chieftain of the wolf-demons for years. Koga had been a serious contender for Kagome's affections a few years ago. Handsome, charismatic, and charming, he had been infatuated with her for many months and had taken every opportunity he could to make a pass at her whenever they met. Rumors had it Koga had found a few more wolf-demon strays and reassembled a respectable sized pack which was now living in his old digs in a canyon north and west of here. At their last parting, it had appeared that Koga had finally accepted that Kagome was not interested in him, so what was he doing here now?

As in the past, Koga bounded into view, brushed InuYasha aside with an elbow shot to his ribs and halted in front of Kagome. As in the past, the wolf clan chieftain was oozing with charm as he addressed her, taking her hands in his.

"Kagome, it's been ages! You are as beautiful as ever."

"Thank you, Koga," she responded. "You are too kind."

InuYasha bristled. Why wouldn't Kagome just tell Koga where to get off? That was another thing that had always annoyed him about Koga.

"Not at all, my dear," Koga said. He took her hands and looked deeply into her eyes. "I've missed you dreadfully. I have come to take you back to the clan's cave to be my mate."

Outraged, InuYasha jumped between them, pushing Kagome behind him protectively. Ears back, he leaned into Koga, snarling "I don't think so!"

"Oh, you don't, eh?" Koga looked down his nose at InuYasha. "What's to stop me?"

"Me!" InuYasha growled, glaring at Koga. "I'm going to marry her."

Behind him, he heard Kagome gasp.

"Do... Do you really mean that?" she cried.

"Uh... yeah." he said, turning to look back at her as she burst into tears.

"What?" he asked, dismayed at her reaction. "You... You mean you don't want to?"

"No," she gasped looking at him in disbelief.

Shattered, InuYasha dropped to his knees, his hands over his face.

Koga grabbed Kagome's arm. "Now that we have that settled," he announced, "we'll just be on our way."

"No!" Kagome snarled, landing a stinging slap on Koga's face and yanking herself free of his grasp. She dropped to her knees in front of InuYasha and took his hands.

"No, that's not what I meant," she said softly. "You idiot! I've been waiting years for you to ask me!" She leaned forward and kissed him gently.

He looked at her tear-streaked face, bewildered by the sudden flip-flops.

"But... you're crying," he said, touching one of the tears as it slid down her cheek.

"I'm so happy," she said. "Oh, you big idiot, surely by now you know how much I love you."

She hugged him tightly, laughing and sobbing, and kissed him again. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, then kissed her back. Neither of them noticed when Koga left.

Koga pulled up on a large rock and sat on it, looking back and chuckling. He had heard some rumors flitting about that InuYasha had been making preparations to bring Kagome in as his wife. A chance meeting with Shippo in the forest had confirmed it. He had rather suspected InuYasha would need a swift kick in the rear to take the final step, though. InuYasha was an idiot in a lot of ways. Koga still wasn't quite sure what Kagome saw in him.

Koga was very taken with Kagome; he very much wanted a woman like her. But when Koga was honest with himself he had to admit Kagome, although she valued his friendship and had done him several good turns, had never seriously considered him as a possible mate. She had always turned to InuYasha.

Ah, well, he valued her friendship too if friendship was all he could have, and he wanted her to be happy. And maybe, just maybe, this would boost his karma enough that he could find another woman like her.

Kaede was in her hut starting up a pot of rice when InuYasha and Kagome arrived for a visit. They were both glowing.

"The deal's on," InuYasha announced. "I'll start today. Kagome won't be ready for a while. I'll want that house first."

"Kaede-sama, I would love you to officiate at the wedding," Kagome said. "You've done so much for us."

"I would be honored," Kaede said.

Kagome beamed and hugged the old lady. "Thank you so much."

From the kitchen, Mama saw them come from the well house together, her daughter and the demon boy who was so enamored of her. Kagome and InuYasha appeared to have made some sort of breakthrough; the distance they had always quietly maintained between them had vanished. They were having some kind of quiet argument, Kagome was urging InuYasha to do something and he was shaking his head no. Kagome eventually gave up, asked him something else to which he agreed, then they kissed briefly and Kagome turned and strode to the house, breaking into a run halfway across. InuYasha remained behind, watching her.

Mama was fairly sure she knew what was coming, but she still felt an electric surge run through her when Kagome burst into the room, hugged her and said, "Mama, I'm getting married."

"I thought you might be," she answered. A complex of conflicting emotions spun through her. She was happy to see Kagome so happy after all her years of patient waiting, but also apprehensive of how difficult Kagome's life would be in the primitive war-torn era she would be adopting. And although InuYasha was devoted to her, the boy was moody and temperamental. Mama swallowed her worries and smiled at Kagome.

Behind her in the living room, Sota and Grampa dropped what they were doing to join them in the kitchen.

Sota was almost bouncing with excitement. "You're marrying InuYasha?! That is so cool! I can't wait to tell... No, wait, I can't tell...Oh, man! Anyway, congratulations!" he said hugging her and laughing.

Grampa was less enthusiastic. InuYasha's visits had a tendency to wear him out. He was always in a quandary about how a priest should be handling the situation. He peered sternly up at Kagome, saying, "You are aware that boy is a demon?"

"He's a hanyou, Grampa. I've told you that before. His mother was human."

"Even so, don't you think you're taking a big chance? Demons are born of evil and corruption. His true nature is bound to come out as soon as he has you in his power."

"Oh, Grampa," Kagome sighed. "I've been dealing with demons on a very personal level for years now. There are a lot of demons that are just like you said, but not all of them. Some of my best friends are demons who are no more likely to hurt me than you are."

"That's just because you are useful to them right now," the old man asserted stubbornly. "As soon as you are no longer convenient, they will turn on you. Demons have no loyalty or honor."

"Grampa, I'm not useful to InuYasha anymore as a Shikon Jewel detector. The jewel is gone, but he still comes here to visit all the time. Don't you think maybe it's because he loves me?"

"What happens after you have two or three babies and you're not so beautiful any more. Is he still going to love you?"

"Grampa! InuYasha isn't like that!"

"So you are determined to go through with this?" The old man looked worriedly up at her.

"Yes, Grampa," Kagome said quietly. "And you'll see. He's not like that."

Grampa left the kitchen, grumbling a bit under his breath, but not objecting any more since he was outnumbered.

After the uproar in the house had settled, Mama asked, "So, why is it just you here? Where is InuYasha?"

Kagome scowled slightly, obviously a little put out. "He refused to come in with me," she answered. "He's just outside."

"Well, then, we'll just have to go get him," Mama said quietly, but firmly.

InuYasha stiffened when he saw Mama come out of the house with Kagome. Ears back, he put on a combative scowl and watched her approach with narrowed wary eyes, obviously expecting a fight. Mama could see Kagome mouthing "Behave yourself" at InuYasha as he looked ready to launch a preemptive strike. He glared back at her, not pleased at being put into this position. Mama stepped up quickly to him, put her arms around him, hugged him and said. "Welcome to the family."

She could feel the start of surprise run through him. He looked down at her with a wide-eyed bemused expression. He looked so much sweeter that way. Had no one ever been kind to the boy? Taking advantage of his surprise, Mama took his arm and started steering him toward the house. Kagome took his other arm, saying, "Didn't I tell you it would be fine?"

1


	3. Chapter 3 Preparations

Chapter 3 - Preparations

A committee had gathered at Kaede's hut on a fine summer morning for the purpose of choosing the site for InuYasha and Kagome's house. InuYasha and Kagome were there of course, as was a small selection of villagers who were skilled in building. Kaede invited herself along as a mediator and Shippo, their tiny young fox demon friend, tagged along too, having nothing better to do.

It proved to be a frustrating morning. The builders were most concerned with the firmness of the ground and the way water would drain in the rain. InuYasha insisted on a decent view of the village as the committee tended to drift farther into the forest in their search for good ground. Kagome wanted to make sure there was convenient access to water. Kaede probed the spiritual resonance of each site and rejected several that had looked promising at the start due to poor energy.

By mid afternoon, certain tempers were flaring, particularly InuYasha's, and most of the committee was about ready to throw in the towel. They had tramped around the perimeter of the village three times in the rising heat of the day and every site was lacking in at least one key element.

They were back at the favored site of the builders. It was a fair distance away from the village, up a hill. The site had a good firm rocky table on which to place the house and potentially other buildings, with a spring above the table that fed a small stream that tumbled across the rocks a short ways away. There was a pleasant meadow downhill of the table. Kagome especially like the fact there was a hot spring a modest but steep climb farther up the hill that fed into a small pond before vanishing back under ground. Kaede approved of the site's resonance. InuYasha was adamantly against the site. There was a thick clump of trees between it and the village and there was no hope of seeing the village through the trees.

"The deal says I'm supposed to protect the village. How the hell am I supposed to do that if I can't see what's going on over there?!" he demanded loudly, leaning into the face of Hideo, the chief builder.

Hideo was a sturdy sort who did not intimidate easily. He had long ago decided InuYasha had a lot of bluster but was not really inclined to bite. He leaned back toward InuYasha and yelled back, "If I build the house anywhere but here, it will sink into the ground and fall apart in ten years or it will flow mud every time it rains! I refuse to build anything as shoddy as that."

"Well, I'm so glad you like this place," InuYasha said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "But don't blame me if I don't rescue you five years from now when brigands attack and I can't see it!"

Shippo had been following the discussion earlier, but now his attention was mostly on the clump of trees. He trotted back and forth, looking at the thicket and the surrounding terrain from several vantage points. Finally he asked Hideo, "Hideo-san, there isn't anything like a hill between us and the village is there? I mean, this is the highest point between here and there isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right," Hideo replied.

"So what would happen if we chop down the trees? Would we see the village then?"

"We should," Hideo replied, "but that is an awful lot of trees."

Kagome turned to InuYasha. "It wouldn't take you very long to clear that, would it?" she asked.

InuYasha looked at the trees. "No, not really," he said. He had felled larger things than those trees before with just his claws. This should be fairly simple.

Kagome then asked, "If you could see the village from here, then would you agree to this site?"

"If I can see the village," he replied. "I'll clear back the trees and we'll find out." One of the builders jumped into the conversation to point out they could use the wood. Now that they had a breakthrough, the discussion picked up from there.

"Thank you, Shippo-chan," Kagome beamed at Shippo.

He smiled back tentatively, but did not seem quite as pleased as he should have at finding this solution.

She crouched down to his level and asked, "Hey, what's the matter?"

"Oh, just everything changing, you know," he said uncomfortably. "Miroku and Sango are gone and you and InuYasha are getting married and, well, I, um, I don't really have anybody or any place to go."

"Oh, Shippo!" Kagome said sympathetically. "You'll still be our friend."

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "But it really won't be the same."

Kagome had known Shippo almost as long as she had known InuYasha. The little fox demon was still a child really, orphaned by other more vicious demons who had been seeking a Shikon jewel fragment Shippo's father had held. Shippo had joined InuYasha and Kagome shortly after that and remained part of their group, partly for protection and partly for companionship. Kagome almost viewed him as a little brother. These days, Shippo needed the protection less than he realized, but their companionship was still important. A surge of sympathy ran through Kagome.

"Shippo-chan, would you like to stay with us?" she asked.

Shippo perked up considerably. "Could I?"

"I think we can work something out," Kagome assured him.

"Uh, Kagome!" InuYasha's attention was back from considering the trees and he was staring at her with appalled amazement. He tapped her forehead a couple of times, saying, "Hello! Is anyone in there? How are we supposed to get any private time with that little twerp under foot?"

"InuYasha!" Kagome snapped. "How about a little consideration for Shippo's feelings? Really, you can be such a jerk!"

"How about a little consideration for my feelings?" InuYasha shot back. "I'm the one you're marrying!"

"It's always you, you, you! Can't you even once look outside yourself?" Kagome cried, tears of anger and frustration welling up in her eyes.

"Oh, geez, no. No crying!" InuYasha groaned. He could face the grimmest monsters out there, no matter how many spikes, claws and venomous fangs they bristled with, but crying women...? His brain always locked.

"Shippo's almost family. We can't just dump him out in the cold with nowhere to go." Kagome pleaded. "And he's always been really good about giving us some space."

InuYasha stared grumpily at the thicket of trees, his back half turned to Kagome and Shippo. He still had that much resistance left.

"We haven't even started the house yet," Kagome sniffed. "We can arrange a small room on the side for Shippo with its own door. After that we just agree on when it's OK for him to come in to our side. Would that be so bad?"

InuYasha continued staring at the trees for a minute longer. Then he glanced back over his shoulder at Kagome's pleading look, wavering.

"You could at least have asked me first," he grumbled, crumpling under Kagome's entreaty.

"Thank you!" she cried, jumping in to hug him and landing a long hard kiss on his mouth. He wobbled a bit in surprise at the leap, then flushed so deeply even his ears were glowing pink under their fur as her kiss weakened his knees. He looked a bit punch-drunk when he surfaced.

He blinked dreamily a few times, then noticed all the grinning faces around him. A look of consternation crossed his face as his brain reengaged. "Wait. I didn't just agree to...," he started.

"Yup," Shippo said.

"But I di.. I didn't ..." InuYasha trailed off lamely as he realized he was done for.

"Too late, everybody heard you." Shippo replied smugly.

InuYasha glanced at the crowd again; from the looks of it, there was definitely no way out of this. His ears drooped. Damn, women just did not fight fair. Stewing, he waited until everyone's attention had drifted away from him, then he snatched Shippo up by the tail and held him up nose to nose, fixing him with a baleful glare.

"Listen up, pipsqueak. If I ever catch you where you don't belong, I'm going to..."

Wham! InuYasha's head rang.

"Put him down!" Kagome commanded.

InuYasha opened his hand, allowing Shippo to drop unceremoniously to the ground. Shippo kicked InuYasha's shin sharply, then he darted off into the crowd leaving InuYasha hopping and snarling behind him.

------------------------ 

A few days later, InuYasha had cleared away enough of the trees that it became apparent the view of the village would be complete and commanding. To everyone's great relief, he declared himself satisfied with the site. Another round of discussions ensued concerning what was needed in a house. Kagome proved to be the major sticking point here; she was accustomed to much more luxurious accommodations than anyone else. But she didn't want to be a big bother to the villagers when they were being so generous with their time and the house that got settled on, while rather larger than the rest of the village dwellings, was still a modest manor house with large main room, a storeroom, a small private chamber for Kagome and InuYasha and, on the opposite side, a shed-like room built on Shippo's scale.

Now that they had the information they needed to work with, the builders got right to work, laying out the house perimeter, digging for foundations and sawing boards and beams from the logs of the trees InuYasha had felled. Hideo became an expert at cajoling InuYasha into doing some of the heavy jobs; InuYasha frequently fumed about how long it took to do things, and if the job in question needed brute strength rather than skilled labor, it did not take much staring at the sky and commenting on how a human could only lift so much or dig so fast to get InuYasha to jump in and do the job himself.

Even so, the work took time. The house was being built around the villagers' normal work schedules and unavoidable gaps in construction occurred on occasion.

--------------------

Kaede thrashed awake again, heart pounding and sweat flowing. The swirls of the dream troubling her dissolved into the darkness, leaving only scant traces that she grasped after before they vanished utterly.

She sat silently, calming herself and trying to seal the remnants of the dream in her mind. It was very dark, the moon had long since set, crickets were chirping lazily in the early morning chill.

She stood at her door and looked out, pondering. It could not have been more peaceful. The fields lay quiet under starlight, the forest in the background was just a band of dark trees that slumbered awaiting dawn.

Such a contrast from the fragments of dreams that had been haunting her since InuYasha and Kagome had announced their engagement. The visions had shown fires, slaughter, crops destroyed. InuYasha appeared in one dire straight after another, being overcome by something unseen. Kagome appeared only in brief flashes, sometimes young, sometimes older. A varying number of children were sometimes present.

Kaede had had no evil premonitions during her waking hours. Any time she had been with either InuYasha or Kagome, the feeling had always been of the rightness of the union. Why the disparity? Was it truly right or wrong?

She looked up the hill toward the shrine. Perhaps she could find some guidance there. She climbed the stairs and gathered wood for the altar's fire. Entering the shrine, she made a formal bow to the altar, requesting the assistance of the gods. With great deliberation, she built the fire up from its banked embers until the flames crackled high. Bowing again, she settled herself into meditative prayer, gazing into the flames and putting her problem before the gods.

The flames rose to envelope her consciousness; they swirled around the edges of her vision and were gone.

She was in a twilit land, surrounded by the shades of people and demons of all sizes. Some people were afflicted by the demons, others walked about talking softly to one another or sat lost in thought. Most seemed to be recuperating from old pains or memories. Some stared about, bewildered and crying, others had achieved some measure of serenity. Kaede looked about her, guessing she might be seeing a vision of Hell, the place of the dead.

"_Yes, you are correct. This is an image of the other world your mind can comprehend,_" a man's voice echoed in her mind. Looking to her right, Kaede saw a man, potent with power and glowing. A god, then. She bowed respectfully to him and he favored her with a bow in return.

"_In this place," _the god continued, _"the dead recover from the trials of their lives and gain strength to return to the land of the living. The demons they caused with their evil or their pain are also caught here, confronted then dissipated. It is frightening when one first arrives, but most find peace here in the end_."

"Your pardon, Holy One, but why are you showing me this?" Kaede asked.

"_Come_," the god replied, "_I have something to show you._"

They walked among the dead, traveling up a path through a forest that led to the sea. There at the edge of the sea, a powerful barrier shimmered. As Kaede watched, shocked people washed out of the waves to the sand of the beach. They passed through the barrier, some trailing the remnants of horrific injuries or being met by demons as they arrived. Others, serene and glowing, passed through the barrier in the other direction to dive joyfully into the waves and vanish.

Kaede watched for a time as the god explained, "_Here is the border between the living and the dead. I am the gatekeeper. My job is to accept the newly dead and only allow outward passage for those who are ready._"

The god sighed. "_The barrier is not perfect and neither am I. People whose evil or pain are great enough can pierce the barrier to summon demons to the land of the living. Occasionally, I judge badly and let through someone who is not really ready. And I can get overpowered by certain sorcerers who will not let the dead rest._"

They walked along the edge of the beach. The waves washed ashore a great number of mangled men with some few women and children mixed with them.

"_Another battle has been fought_, " the god commented, looking at the jetsam of souls sadly. "_But come, this is not why I brought you here._"

He picked up the pace, walking purposefully toward a rocky abutment farther down the beach, Kaede following. Light flashed around the abutment, brilliant and stark, to dissipate itself against the barrier. Waves crashed against the rocks, then drew back as the god approached. He and Kaede rounded the point as another blast of light flared against the barrier.

The sea ran up against a cliff, dashing its strength against the rocks with great white splashes of foam. Halfway up the cliff, well above the waves, Kaede could see the Shikon jewel wedged in a cleft of the rocks. For the moment, it was purified, its clean gleam illuminating its perch.

"The jewel!", she gasped. "I thought it was destroyed!"

"_ Sending an item to Hell only sends it to Hell. The jewel abides here now. It does not trouble your world, but it is not destroyed_. _It fell through in an immense storm nearly four years ago and lodged there, just at the border_. _That might have been acceptable, except that one of our brothers, Muchitsujo-rei, is actively trying to seize it._"

"Is this Muchitsujo-rei a demon?" Kaede asked.

"_No, he is a god. In his milder, more contained aspect, he is Kaeru-ki, but since the wars began, fed by the turmoil of each senseless battle, he has grown beyond his own control and become warped. He is drunk with the power and wants to grow even more. Many of my brothers and sisters are working to leash him again but it is hard going. So far, we have managed to keep him barred from the Realm of the Dead, but that may not hold much longer_."

"If he is a god, why does he seek the jewel?" Kaede asked.

The god looked at her soberly and answered, "_Even gods make use of artifacts of power. He believes the jewel will make him unleashable._"

"Can you not move the jewel yourself?"

"_We pondered that, but the risk is too high. The jewel has immense powers of temptation. We dare not touch it. The stronger the bearer, the greater the influence of the jewel._"

Light flared again, dashing and spreading against the barrier from the outside, pushing and deforming it. The attack relented and the barrier rippled back into shape, shimmering with the residual energy.

Kaede studied the jewel for a time, pondering. She could think of only one reason why a god would bring a tired, weak old miko to this place. Especially her; she knew enough of the history and perils of the jewel to guard herself from its influence. "Do you want me to move it?" She really was not sure how she could get to its location on that cliff.

The god smiled a moment at her offer, then sighed and said, "_There is nowhere that you, a mortal, could move it that_ _Muchitsujo-rei could not reach. I showed you this so you would understand the importance of our request. We have another task for you._

"_Your power is with the living. My brothers and sisters are seeking to end the wars of the living to cut the source of Muchitsujo-rei's power. To this end, we pushed Kikyo and InuYasha together some 50 years ago. But the project went awry when Onigumo meddled. Kikyo died and we were forced to wait until she was reborn and grown to an age where we could begin again. We then snatched her back to your time and forced the situation so that the new Kikyo, whom you know as Kagome, and InuYasha would be required to stay together. Once again calamity struck when that ogress Urasue reconstructed the old Kikyo and ended up splitting the woman's soul. We nearly lost the project again as InuYasha wavered between his old love and his new one._

_"We want you to find a way to protect InuYasha. Both he and Kagome are powerful beings, but alone, they are incomplete. They require each other to fully use their power. And we require that power and the power of their children to bring peace to this portion of the land._

_"This is not our only project, but it is important enough to invest special attention in it. Once Muchitsujo-rei discovers this project, he will relentlessly attack them. I will guard the jewel as long as I can. I think I can get you a few years. But after that, they will need help to withstand Muchitsujo-rei. We need you to provide that strength._"

"But how?" Kaede asked in despair. "I am an old woman with not that much strength of my own. I may not even still live when Muchitsujo-rei comes."

"_You bound InuYasha to a spell once before and that spell does not need your tending,_" the god reminded her.

"Ah, me," Kaede said softly. "He hates those beads. I think he is still angry with me for placing them on him"

"_And yet, the woman has used them more than once to save him,_" the god commented.

"What spell should I use then?" queried Kaede.

"_You know him better than I do. But they must remain together. I leave the details to you._"

Flames circled the edges of her sight as she began to return from her vision.

"Holy one," she cried as the vision faded, "How fares my sister? Does she rest peacefully?"

"_She has far to go but she is..._" Just what she was could not be heard as the god faded and Kaede came back to herself, kneeling before a now faltering altar fire. Dawn's first light fell through the door of the shrine as she rose stiffly. She bowed once more to the altar, then left the shrine, pondering how best to perform the gods' task.

1


	4. Chapter 4 First Harvest

Chapter 4 - First Harvest

The house construction had been in progress for a few weeks. Kagome arrived at the house site around mid-morning on a weekend and looked around. Unlike her previous visits, today the area was deserted. She wandered around for a few minutes, examining progress, which really was remarkably swift given that it was being done with what time the villagers could donate.

The sound of something large crashing through the forest caught her attention, and InuYasha appeared shortly after, dragging a large log. Shippo was with him, having gone along for the ride.

"Kagome!" Shippo shouted, jumping onto her shoulder to say hello.

"Hi, Shippo. What's up?" she said.

"We got a big tree for the ridge beam," Shippo answered as InuYasha placed the log near the house.

InuYasha looked around the site, frowning.

"Where is everyone?" he demanded, disgruntled.

"There was no one here when I got here," Kagome replied.

"We'll see about that!" InuYasha turned on his heel and started marching toward the village. Delays were inclined to put him in a sour mood. Kagome hurried after him to head off a fight.

"InuYasha, the builders wouldn't have left without a good reason! They've been working very hard on the house up to this point. Please, let's find out what's going on before you start yelling!"

InuYasha did not look convinced that this was a reasonable assumption, and as they entered the village, one of the villagers, Eiichi, dashed past them carrying baskets and tools. InuYasha stopped him and barked, "Hey, Eiichi, what's the big idea of..."

Exasperated, Kagome snapped, "InuYasha, SIT!"

The enchanted rosary around InuYasha's neck yanked him into a face plant in the road. As he coughed the dust out of his throat, Kagome apologized to Eiichi.

"What was that for?!" InuYasha sputtered, glaring up at her.

"You were being really rude," she informed him. Turning back to Eiichi, she asked him sweetly what was causing the delay and what could they do to help?

"Well, Kagome-sama, I don't rightly know as there's much you can do to help," the builder responded. "You see, it's harvest time. Everything is ready to come in now, and we've got to get it before the weather turns. We'll be happy to get back to your house when the crops are in."

"Oh, I see. Well, thank you for telling us," she said as he gathered up the baskets and tools and hurried on toward the fields.

"There, now, you see? It is something important," Kagome said to InuYasha as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"Maybe for them, but I don't see..." InuYasha started.

"Oh, no you don't!" Kagome scolded. "It's our food too! We're going to go help, so can the attitude and get moving!" She got behind him and started pushing, steering him toward the fields.

Protests proving futile, and with the threat of another "Sit!" looming over him, maybe this time into a bramble-laden ditch, InuYasha gave up and allowed himself to be drafted into the harvest crew. He was assigned to carrying all the heavy loads, which freed about ten men and four oxen for field work. Kagome worked the fields until her hands were raw with blisters, then she retreated to kitchen work.

Even with ten extra men in the fields, InuYasha found himself with slack time occasionally. During one of these periods, he was idly watching the hills surrounding the village when he saw a man sneaking through the bushes far up one of the hills. He didn't like the look of it. It might be just a deserter trying to get home, but it might also be a scout for a band of brigands looking for a target. The man appeared to be alone; the threat wasn't immediate so he mentally marked the spot for later investigation.

At sundown, the village was jubilant. Over half the crop was already in, a record result thanks to InuYasha's help. The women served a large communal dinner around a bonfire and the tired workers ate their fill and chatted happily about being done by mid afternoon the next day for at least the rice and millet. Kagome fell asleep against InuYasha's back, her food half eaten.

InuYasha ate quickly, impatient to go find out what the story was with the lurker. He poked Kagome awake and told her he had work to attend to.

"What? You've been working all day," she protested sleepily.

He prodded her up and handed her off to Kaede, telling them both, "I saw someone sneaking around the hills above the village this afternoon. I'm going to go check it out. It may just be a deserter, but I don't think so."

He slipped out of the village and up the hill. It took a while to sniff out just where the man had been hiding, but once that was found, InuYasha quickly traced the trail over the hill to where the man had mounted a horse. He followed the horse trail for five miles, then lost it at a busy crossroad.

InuYasha searched carefully for a couple of hours for either the horse's or the man's scent, but was unable to pull any more traces from the ground. He eventually decided his time would be better spent guarding the village.

By sunrise, the weather had become chancy, and so had InuYasha's temper. He was still decidedly grumpy about losing the trail the night before and was not interested in being soothed. Although the rest of the village was scrambling at top speed to get the rest of the crop in before the weather broke, most of his attention was locked on the hills around the village. He needed prodded several times to get back to work, and when he was working, his ears swiveled in all directions and he sniffed at every change in the wind.

The last loads were going in in the late afternoon when he stopped suddenly, staring up the hill.

"Hey, InuYasha, the bundles!" prodded the farmer beside him.

"You'll have to handle it from here," InuYasha replied. "We've got company." He took a firm grip on his sword and sprinted out of the fields, disappearing into the brush.

----------------

There are halfbreeds and there are halfbreeds. Most of them do not survive childhood. All of them have a hard life. Many of the survivors fall into depravity.

Kiba-maru was a boar demon's halfling, the product of a rape. His father was pleased enough with his existence, but not enough to pay him much mind. He was only alive because his mother's family had deeply feared reprisals from the old boar should anything befall him. There was nothing in his character to endear him to even his own mother. He grew to a massive size, tall and heavily muscled with a boars tusks and ears, coarse black hair over most of his body and small hard eyes glaring over the tusked mouth. He was coarse, vicious and uncontrollable, the terror of the countryside for many miles around.

He had lived most of his life in the forested lands of the far north, doing whatever he pleased until the day he offended his father's relatives. He had found a pretty young sow demon in the forest alone and had treated her as he treated any other woman who caught his eye. The rape was brutal and the girl's mother was a very powerful old sow with tremendous influence in the boar clan.

In very short order, Kiba-maru had found himself surrounded by a dozen boar demons, all in their prime, his uncles and cousins, who firmly informed him he was no longer welcome there and he should be long gone by the next rising of the moon if he valued his life.

He headed south, attracting a group of other thugs as he went, men who also relished brutality and liked his bravado. He now headed the most feared band of brigands in the southern plains. Pickings were getting scarce in his latest district, so he was shifting a bit north, looking for fresh targets.

Kiba-maru, two of his deputies and his scout sat on horseback behind some trees just below the hill top and surveyed the village below them. Kiba-maru was pleased; this was a fat village with their crops just in. The farmers would still be exhausted from the harvest and the weather would give them excellent cover as they approached.

"I say we go in at sundown," he told his deputies. "A two-pronged attack, there and there." He pointed to his chosen entry points.

"And I say you leave now, while you still can."

The mists concealed the source of the light tenor voice. The owner sounded young and confident.

Quelling a moment of uncertainty, Kiba-maru called harshly, " And who are you?"

The silhouette of a medium-tall slender man emerged from the mists swirling amid the trees.

"The protector of the village," responded the young man.

Kiba-maru snorted, amused. The young man looked like he was scarcely more than a kid. And he was alone. Kiba-maru looked forward to a little fun. As the kid approached closer, Kiba-maru could see he was also hanyou, demon halfbreed, with dog's ears pricking up through his silver hair. The kid still didn't look like much.

"I see just the one of you," observed Kiba-maru. He shifted in his saddle, trying to see farther into the mists.

"I am enough," the young man said calmly.

"The little twit must only know about the four of us," thought Kiba-maru. He had seventy in all in his band. There was no way one hanyou could stand against seventy forewarned men. Any chance of an ambush was obviously over, though. It was best to take care of the young warrior now, then attack. He whistled sharply. The rest of the band gathered quickly around him, all on horseback.

The young hanyou didn't even flinch.

"Ah, good," he declared, "There's the rest of you. I'll only have to do this once."

He drew his sword and swung it quickly like snapping a whip, up the bank of the hill next to the band. The ground he sliced at heaved and buckled, leaving huge crevices radiating away from him. Most of the horses shied wildly, plunging and bucking. Some fell into the crevices, breaking legs and pitching riders. When the chaos subsided, the kid pointed the sword at them.

"If you don't want this sword directed at you, you will leave this village immediately and not return," he said coolly and firmly, his eyes never leaving them.

Kiba-maru measured his chances. He didn't have any artifact to match that sword. There was no way his band would survive a charge into it. It was best to let the youngster think he had won and come back later.

"I see your point," he growled. "All right men, let's go find another camp for the night." He turned his horse and led his men up the hill.

----------------

InuYasha watched them disappear over the hill. He didn't think the attempt to wave them off had worked, but he had bought some time. He sprinted back down the hill and gathered Kaede and the other elders.

"We have a band of over fifty brigands up there led by another hanyou. I gave them a warning and a demonstration, but I don't think they're ready to leave yet.

"Well, why didn't ye just blast them with that sword right off?" demanded old man Shigeo.

"This sword was designed to fight demons, not humans," InuYasha answered. "It works best when it can tap into my opponent's youki for power. It's a chancy thing whether or not it will work fully in this situation. I'm going to go back up there to try to stop as many as I can, definitely the hanyou, but they had been talking about having more than one party attacking. You will need to arrange a force to fight off any that get through me."

InuYasha plucked Shippo from the perch where he had been watching.

"I've got a job for you," he said.

"Me?" Shippo squeaked.

"You can handle this. I want you to spook any horses that come into the village tonight. That should give the rest of the men a better chance of chasing off the ones that get around me."

Shippo considered it then grinned. He wouldn't even have to get under foot if he did it right.

"Yeah, that'll be easy!"

InuYasha turned to Kagome.

"You are not to stick your neck out in the middle of this. Stay with the women and children."

She glowered at him. "I am not going to cower in some corner. I can shoot a bow as well as anyone here."

InuYasha changed tactics quickly.

"And I want someone who won't collapse as the last guard for them."

They locked eyes as Kagome digested that one.

"All right, I'll stay in the shrine. But I'm going to be where I can see what's going on and shoot."

"Good enough."

InuYasha returned to the hills as the village organized itself for an assault. He considered what he needed to do. He truly was not sure the Tetsusaiga would respond full force in this situation; it was designed for protecting humans. What he really needed to do was convince the brigands the village was too much trouble to sack. If he could keep them scared and disorganized, he should be able to get them to leave. That hanyou was another story. He looked more beast than human. At all costs, he needed to be kept from the village. InuYasha wondered what Kiba-maru could do and how well Tetsusaiga would work on him.

By the time he had caught up with the band, they had retreated a good distance, split into three parties and were approaching the village on widely divergent paths. Darkness was approaching as he closed on the main pack. He launched himself into the trees and studied them from above. There were about thirty in this group. They were clustered in three smaller groups, the men excited, the horses restive. Kiba-maru was not with them.

InuYasha adjusted his position and chose his targets. If he did this right, the brigands would be in chaos in half a minute and he would be gone. He launched himself into the middle of one group, knocking two men from the saddle and raking the rumps of three horses with his claws. He leaped at another group, slashing three or four riders and spooking as many horses as he could. Wheeling to the third group, he ran over the horses' backs, knocking men from their saddles.

Leaving chaos behind him, he returned to the trees and ran to where he could hear another party as they reacted to the sudden commotion he had left behind him. He repeated his performance, then seeing the flare of fox-fire, he sprinted back to the village.

The third party, realizing the game was up, had charged into the village at the first sound of trouble. Shippo had put half of them out of commission with bursts of fox-fire. The remaining seven, including Kiba-maru, were charging through the street with their swords drawn. Villagers swung at them with farm implements as they plunged by, then fell back. A few arrows flew from Kagome's vantage point on the shrine hill.

InuYasha laid about with his claws, felling many of the remaining brigands. The batch Shippo had spooked had already fled when he broke free of the fight. He could smell Kiba-maru about somewhere, the pig odor pungent and pervasive. Screams from the shrine alerted him that Kiba-maru had found the women. InuYasha bolted toward the shrine, leaving the cleanup of the human brigands to Shippo and the village men.

So, Kaede had not been able to erect a spiritual barrier in time. Kagome had not yet been trained in the art, for all that she was a powerful miko. He had better hurry.

Charging up the stairs, he could smell blood and the peculiar odor of air charged with exorcistic magic. There were more screams and sobs from the shrine, followed by groans of pain. InuYasha shot through the torii gate, across the courtyard and into the shrine. A pair of old men and a ten year old boy were groaning along the wall, slashed by Kiba-maru as they defended the women. The women and the babies were clustered behind the altar fire; Kaede and Kagome were in front of it with their bows drawn and trained on the hulking bulk of the pig-man.

"So, the little mikos think they can beat me off, do they?" he sneered. "I've got news for you. It's never worked yet. And I like mikos. Especially young ones with some fight in them."

Kagome flushed and let fly with her arrow just as Kiba-maru jumped for her. He didn't quite evade its flight, receiving a painful graze along his ribs as he reached for her. Kagome's arrows stung harder than most; InuYasha could smell the burned flesh from the arrow's track.

"Bitch!" Kiba-maru snarled as he snatched away Kagome's bow and grabbed her.

"Kagome!" InuYasha charged the pair of them as everyone else darted for cover.

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried in relief as she fought to free herself from Kiba-maru's grasp.

Kiba-maru turned and looked. So the little twerp was InuYasha, was he? He'd heard rumors about what he could do with that sword. He'd also heard InuYasha had a thing for mikos. Bets were this was his current one, a pretty little thing with a fiery spirit. Kiba-maru pulled her closer and licked along her neck then behind her ear. The girl shuddered and squirmed harder as InuYasha flushed and snarled angrily, frustrated he couldn't use his sword with his woman serving as Kiba-maru's shield.

Kiba-maru edged toward the door with Kagome held tightly between him and InuYasha. The girl continued to fight, trying to trip him, trying to hook her feet in passing obstacles. He easily lifted her off the ground and continued his move for the door, nuzzling her again and grabbing her ass for a good feel. She gasped and tried to wriggle away from his groping hand while InuYasha growled and lunged for him. He snapped the girl close in a tight choke hold as InuYasha drew near and said, "I'll break her neck." InuYasha backed off, frustrated and frantic. This was becoming fun.

Kiba-maru edged into the doorway of the shrine and looked out, preparing to bolt to the forest with his prize.

"Fox-fire!" Blue flames erupted around Kiba-maru, blinding him. He dropped the girl to shield his eyes. She rolled aside as InuYasha charged him, drawing his sword. Damn it! With the loss of the girl, he had lost control of the situation. Boars, however, are stubborn ferocious fighters. He lunged as InuYasha closed in, goring the dog-kid's belly with his tusks. InuYasha slashed with the sword, scoring a painful blow across his back as he was thrown aside. He rolled to his feet, raising the sword for a more potent blow. Youki swirled around the sword as the power built.

Kiba-maru used the time he had bought to bolt out of the shrine and round a corner out of sight as he fled for the hills. Shippo shot another burst of fox-fire after him to hurry him along.

"InuYasha!" Kagome scrambled to him as he collapsed to his knees and clung to him briefly, shuddering with revulsion. He held her close, taking as much comfort as he was giving in the aftermath of the fight. A few minutes later, she was fussing over him, insisting on tending his injuries. She supported him down the stairs to Kaede's hut, where the other injured were assembling.

Outside, the brigands had been completely routed and the villagers' injuries, though painful, were not lethal. The villagers had also managed to catch about five of the brigand's horses.

The village dinner that night was much more subdued than the night before. After dinner, Kaede led a heart-felt ceremony of thanksgiving for their delivery from the brigands. A watch was set, but the village was left unmolested for the rest of the night, allowing InuYasha to sleep and heal through the night, tended by Kagome. When they awoke the following morning, they found several anonymous gifts had been left for them.

1


	5. Chapter 5 Countdown to a Wedding

Chapter 5 - Countdown to a Wedding

Kaede had been procrastinating. She did not relish tying InuYasha to more restrictions, even though they were meant for his protection. The prayer beads she had put on him a few years ago had been an act of desperation to save Kagome's life. This felt more like a betrayal and she had invested a good deal of effort into regaining InuYasha's trust after she had bespelled him the last time.

She had concentrated her energy on other aspects of the upcoming wedding. Selecting an auspicious day had proven to be quite a challenge. It was normally done by casting the horoscopes of the participants, but InuYasha had no idea when he was born and Kagome technically would not be born for several hundred years. Kaede had no idea how to cast a horoscope backwards, or even if such a horoscope could be legitimate.

She tried casting sticks for guidance. The day that appeared to be the most auspicious using this method was the new moon after the autumnal equinox. InuYasha loudly vetoed that almost before it was out of her mouth.

Kagome found something very funny about that.

"You're going to be up all night anyway, so I don't see what the big deal is," she said wickedly, obliquely referring to some secret she and InuYasha shared. The searing look he fired back would have slain a lesser being.

Stifling her giggles, Kagome told Kaede, "I don't think that will work. He's going to be a major grump all night that night."

Quelling her curiosity with difficulty, Kaede moved to inspecting their palms. Palmistry was not her strongest suit. She traced out some good guidance from Kagome's hand, but InuYasha's hand was baffling. His lines were all subtly off; they flowed in unexpected directions and had odd breaks in locations she had never seen before. There was a gap in his life line near the top for instance, then the line resumed, strong and clear. That must have been when he was sealed to the tree. His heart line looked braided or entwined. While it all provided fascinating insights into his past and character, it was leading nowhere as far as choosing auspicious dates was concerned. Frustrated, she decided she would need to put it before the gods directly. They obviously had an interest in this, let them work it out.

Kaede chose a time after sunset when the village had settled down for the night and she was relatively sure she would not be interrupted. She entered the shrine and built up the altar fire, then settled in to meditate before the flames.

The fire snapped and crackled in the fresh wood, the flames reaching high in rippling curls. As Kaede watched, the flames became more sinuous, more fluid, then she felt a presence join her, supple, flowing, restless, with an aura of great strength underlying the fluidity.

"_Woman._" The presence formed itself into the shape of a graceful, willowy woman in shimmering robes with flickering eyes and hair that rippled constantly in the influence of some unfelt current. A different god from last time; this one looked like a river spirit.

"Holy One."

"_You called._"

"My gratitude, Holy One. I am seeking an auspicious day for the wedding of InuYasha and Kagome and have had difficulties with the normal methods. Since this joining is of interest to you, I wish to know your will."

The goddess flowed to Kaede's side and placed a cool hand on her brow, touching her memories. A ripple of amusement flowed through her.

"_Yes, the case is unusual. Let me see what I can find._"

Kaede watched through the goddess's eyes as rippling currents, eddies and still pools of softly glowing water formed before her. The goddess studied the currents, watching as eddies brightened and dimmed, their colors shifting, melding and separating in a soft opalescent flow. A quiet pool erupted into a boiling, turbulent crimson upwelling before them, then subsided slowly; to their left, a rapidly spinning eddy slowed and settled into a soft quiet pool of gently pulsing green, its light dimming as a golden current swept past it to the right.

The goddess stretched her hand over the waters, feeling the radiance and pull of the currents. She swept slowly for a time, then settled over one softly glowing silver eddy.

"_Here._" The vision of the current faded from Kaede's eyes as the goddess interpreted the vision into a day. "_Three days before the full moon after the autumnal equinox._"

Kaede prostrated herself before the goddess, expressing her heartfelt thanks.

"_You would best serve me by attending to the task we gave you._" The reminder was mildly said, but Kaede felt the sting of the reproach all the same. She prostrated herself again, seeking pardon.

"Holy One, I need an artifact to bind the spell, one that I can be sure will be accepted. There is nothing in the ceremony that lends itself to the task." She ran over the basics of the ceremony in her head. There was the purification, the reading of the vows, the ceremony of the cups. Nothing involved a permanent artifact she could use to bind the spell.

The goddess considered for a time. To Kaede's great relief, she did not look angry when she turned to Kaede and took her leave, saying only, "_I must confer with my brethren._"

Kaede was once more alone in the shrine. She performed a ceremony to thank the gods again for their assistance then retired, wondering what the gods would decide.

--------------------

With the day now chosen, plans for the wedding ceremony went into higher gear. InuYasha tracked down old friends who didn't live in the village and passed out invitations. The friends Kagome most wanted to see were their companions from the quest to slay the demon Naraku, Miroku and Sango.

Miroku was a Buddhist monk and Sango was the last survivor of a village of demon exterminators. At the time of the quest, Miroku had had a black hole to Hell embedded in his right hand, a legacy of Naraku, which had vanished when Naraku was destroyed. Sango, although a young woman, had been thoroughly trained in the arts of demon slaying, her chief weapon having been a massive boomerang forged of demons' bones. It now spent most of its time hanging in their house. They had married shortly after the end of the quest and were now running a minor demon exorcism business based in a village about three days walk away. Miroku and Sango said they wouldn't miss it for the world.

Other friends, like Myoga the flea demon and Toto-sai, the demon smith, had not been heard from yet. Myoga liked to hang out with Toto-sai and Toto-sai had moved again, after another run-in with InuYasha's brother Sesshomaru. Kagome suspected InuYasha was not trying very hard to find them. He was also avoiding his brother. Kagome cut him some slack on that one. InuYasha and Sesshomaru despised one another; Sesshomaru would not add anything to the festivities.

--------------------

As the wedding approached and the house neared completion, Kagome busied herself sorting her belongings at home. She was now finished and had gone through the well to check on progress on the house, which had been flying together since the harvest. The roofing materials had just been lifted and InuYasha was back on the ground when he saw that Kagome was there. He flushed a vivid red and looked quickly away.

Kagome couldn't imagine what he suddenly found so embarrassing about her. "Hey, what's the matter with you?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, still looking anywhere but at her.

"Yeah, right." she said. "Then why are you as red as your clothes?"

"Uh... Miroku and Sango have arrived." he said, obliquely skirting the issue.

"That might start to explain something," Kagome thought. She wondered what the details were.

"And?..." she prompted.

"... And Miroku decided I needed some ... wedding night coaching." InuYasha continued uncomfortably.

Kagome felt herself begin to blush. "Oh, my. How bad was it?" she asked.

InuYasha blushed even redder, if that were possible. "He didn't leave much to the imagination," he choked.

"Ohhhh no!" Kagome groaned. Miroku was known for his unabashed enjoyment of female companionship. And now that he had been married to Sango for four years, he was the father of two little girls. The sort of frank discussion he would have had with InuYasha might well have embarrassed the much more reserved InuYasha into paralysis. There were just three days left until the wedding. "I'm going to kill him."

--------------------

Early the next morning InuYasha arrived at the Higurashi house to move Kagome's possessions. Kagome thought she had everything ready to move, but InuYasha obviously had other ideas. He took one look at the neat array of boxes stacked in the bedroom and down the hall, rounded on her and said, "Hey, wait a minute. I thought you said you had everything sorted!"

"I do!" she insisted.

"There is no way all of that is going to fit in the house," he declared.

"You don't think so?" she said, peering at the boxes and trying to estimate the size.

"Well, it might," he conceded, "but then we won't."

"Oh," she said, deflated.

"What's in all these boxes, anyway?" he asked, slitting one open with a claw and dumping its contents on the bed. A pile of underwear faced them.

"You've got to be kidding," he said, staring at the pile. "Who could possibly use that much underwear?"

"Well, you have to change it regularly. It's just disgusting if you don't." Surely he knew that. But if he didn't, then... She looked at him speculatively. Just how often did he clean his clothes?

He caught her staring.

"Now, wait a minute," he said defensively, correctly interpreting the look. "This is your stuff we're discussing here."

"Just how often do you wash your clothes?" she asked, eyes narrowed as she studied them critically.

"Whenever they need it," he said defiantly.

"And that would be ... Every three days? Once a week? Whenever you fall in the river?"

"It's kind of open-ended. It depends on the situation." He dove at her pile of underwear and grabbed a handful of panties and one of bras, held them up and said, "That should be enough, right?"

She took the handfuls, counted out the contents and added enough to give herself a week's supply with a couple of spares.

"All right," he said, whisking the rest aside before she could change her mind, then dumping another box.

The argument ebbed and flowed as they negotiated their way through her belongings.

Mama popped her head through the door a few hours later.

"My, it's been noisy up here," she commented. She looked at the "progress" for a moment and blinked. The room was now a shambles. A small pile of approved boxes was sealed and stacked outside the door. The rejects were piled in a random heap that filled half the room. Kagome and InuYasha had just started on a box of toiletries and were in a heated discussion over what was needed and what was frivolous.

"Would you like to break for lunch?" Mama asked. "It's ready downstairs."

InuYasha and Kagome stopped looking daggers at each other and considered it.

"Shall we?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied. It was the first thing they had agreed on in hours.

They followed Mama downstairs and joined Sota and Grampa at the table. Grampa looked at InuYasha with mild disapproval and harrumphed under his breath. InuYasha glanced at Grampa uncomfortably, then studied his food intently. By unspoken agreement, the two of them studiously ignored each other.

"How's it going up there?" Sota asked. As much as he liked InuYasha, he still did not quite have the nerve to go up there when he and his sister were in full battle, and it had been awfully loud upstairs at times.

"Umm, progressing," Kagome said. "I think we're more than half way through the reality check."

"Reality check?" Sota asked.

"I... sort of overestimated how much space we have," Kagome clarified.

"Sort of!" InuYasha snorted.

He plucked up a piece of fish, studied it a moment and sniffed it before putting it in his mouth. He had never quite gotten over his one experience with curry rice. He then looked at Kagome and said, "Run that by me again; you need how much stuff to take care of your hair?"

Sota failed to stifle the giggle that bubbled up at that question; he had always found Kagome's hair regimen a bit over the top. Even Grampa looked amused.

"Shampoo, conditioner, volume enhancer, styling mousse, comb, styling brush, curling iron and hair spray," Kagome recited defiantly. "And once a month I do a deep oil treatment."

"Right... And you can't live without even one of those things." He looked at her like he thought she was nuts.

"Look, just because you think it's enough to fall in a river once a month..." Kagome started.

"What is it with you suddenly deciding all I ever do is fall in a river?!" InuYasha demanded hotly.

"Well, I've never seen you do anything else," Kagome countered.

"Oh! And you've been watching?" exclaimed InuYasha, looking scandalized.

"Well, no, but..." Kagome started.

"So you really don't have any idea at all what you're talking about!" InuYasha asserted, looking at the ceiling with an injured air.

Kagome subsided, but she looked at InuYasha like she was pretty sure he was bluffing.

They ate in silence for a while.Then InuYasha started it again. "Maybe we need an independent view. Sota, what do..."

"I think it's OK to fall in a river," Sota blurted.

Everyone stared at him.

"Oh... Uh...," he said, blushing, "I guess that wasn't the question."

"What do you do with your hair?" InuYasha tried again.

"Oh!" Sota looked momentarily blank, then said, "Shampoo, conditioner, then I comb it."

InuYasha looked at Grampa. The old man shrugged and said "Shampoo and a comb."

He moved on to Mama.

"Shampoo, conditioner, and I get it permed at the hairdresser."

InuYasha stared at Kagome, his eyebrows raised. She stared back, unwilling to give an inch.

"It sounds to me," InuYasha said, "like shampoo, conditioner and a comb should be enough."

"If I don't mind looking like a drowned rat," Kagome retorted.

"I really don't think you'll look like a drowned rat," InuYasha said.

"Oh, so now you're an expert," Kagome said, rising from her seat and closing in on him. "Let's see how the expert is doing with his own hair."

"Hey!" InuYasha yelped, trying to wave her off. "I'm not the one who's trying to bring half of Tokyo through the well!"

Kagome was not going to be deterred that easily. She picked up a lock of InuYasha's hair and examined it closely.

"Ohh, major split ends," she announced, "Doesn't look like it's been brushed in weeks..."

She spread the lock out and fished out a few seeds and burrs, holding them up for general inspection. "Hmmmmm..."

She lifted the lock and looked under it. "Ooooo, check out that mat."

Scowling, ears flat, chin on his hand, InuYasha endured the examination. "Are you quite done?" he asked grumpily.

"This is going to take a lot of work," she declared. "At a minimum, I'm going to need..."

"All right! All right!" he said, "We'll go through your hair stuff later when the rest is sorted!"

They finished lunch, then InuYasha and Kagome trooped back upstairs. Sota tagged along, having decided the show was way too much fun to miss.

All of the bottles, jars, cans and boxes were arrayed as they had been when they had broken for lunch. After listening to a refresh of what the array of items was for, InuYasha ruthlessly swept ninety percent of them to the reject side. Kagome dove in and rescued an armful. InuYasha flipped three quarters of the rescues back to the rejects. Kagome pulled half of those back. Back and forth it went, with the disputed item pile shrinking until all that remained was a can of shaving cream that bounced back and forth, hitting the dresser top harder each time it landed as InuYasha and Kagome silently asserted their opinions. Intent on having the final say, InuYasha slammed the can down on the reject side and held it there, staring Kagome in the eye. She stared back, then apparently decided to give up. Satisfied, InuYasha turned to get another box. As he let go of the can, Kagome snatched it back, then let go of it suddenly with a squeal. The can bounced to the floor emitting shaving cream through several pinprick holes pierced in its side.

"Will you watch it with the claws already?" Kagome hissed as InuYasha looked at the can in astonishment.

"I'll get a towel," Sota offered, heading toward the linen closet.

Kagome and Sota mopped up the mess as InuYasha slit open the next box.

"What's this?" he asked, holding up a box of tampons.

Kagome and Sota looked at each other, horror struck.

"There sure are a lot of them," InuYasha commented, digging deeper in the box.

Blushing brilliantly, Kagome said fiercely, "It's girl stuff and you don't want to know the details."

"You aren't even going to tell me what it is?" InuYasha asked, starting to open one of the boxes.

Sota swallowed hard. Now thirteen, he had had the anatomy briefing in school just last year and had filed the part on a woman's menstrual cycle firmly under TMI (Too Much Information).

"You really ought to just go with her on this one," he said, flashing InuYasha a 'you-really-really-don't-want-to-know' look.

InuYasha stared quizzically at Sota and continued to slowly open the box, take out a tampon, then unwrap it. He examined it closely, completely unable to fathom what it could possibly be used for.

Sota had never seen Kagome so red. She was nearly crying with embarrassment.

"Uh, Mama?" he called out the door. "Could you come up here for a moment?"

Mama came up the stairs and looked in the room. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what the problem was.

"Help!" Kagome mouthed at her mother.

Mama sighed and beckoned to InuYasha.

"Would you come with me for a few minutes, dear?" she said calmly. "There are a few things you need to know about women's bodies.

InuYasha looked at the tampon, at Kagome, who was curled up tightly doing her best to sink through the floor, then at Mama.

"Uh, yeah," he replied slowly, following her.

A couple of moments later, Kagome peered through her fingers to assure herself InuYasha was really gone. She unbent a bit, starting to breathe again, and looked after her mother in awe.

"How can she just get up and do that?" she whispered.

"I don't think anything can rattle Mama," Sota replied.

Kagome had nearly relaxed when InuYasha returned, looking like the revelations had been rather more than he had bargained for. She still could not quite meet his eye, but he didn't try. He solemnly repacked and resealed the box and silently put it on the approved pile. He then pulled another box and slit it open. Shoes. Sota watched the bare footed InuYasha as he pulled out a pair of particularly impractical shoes, asking "And just what were you thinking here?" and happily settled back to enjoy the fireworks.

By late afternoon, all of the boxes had been examined. InuYasha surveyed the surviving belongings and said, "Well, let's see how much of this stuff we can get shifted by nightfall."

All of them seized what they could carry and headed downstairs. Mama caught them as they passed the kitchen and insisted they all be there for dinner. It sounded like she had something special planned.

After a bit of fumbling around, the three of them settled into an assembly line; Sota moved boxes from the house to the well, Kagome got them through the well and InuYasha moved them the rest of the way. They were easily done by dinner time.

Mama had indeed pulled out the stops for dinner. She was wistful about having to miss her daughter's wedding and determined to bring at least some of the celebration to her own time so she could be a part of it. As dinner wound down, she said,

"There is very little we can do here to help you get started, but we put our heads together and got some things you would have a very hard time getting back then. Sota, would you give me a hand, please?"

The two of them disappeared into Mama's room and returned with an array of boxes. Two were enormous, one was very small, and the remainder were an array of rather ordinary sizes. InuYasha stared at the two huge boxes, dismayed.

The first of the two big boxes proved to be a top quality futon and comforter, to InuYasha's great relief. The medium-sized boxes provided basic cookware and dishes. The other big box contained Sota's gift, a very large supply of instant ramen. He explained himself away by saying he was sure there would be days when there would be no time to cook dinner, so he thought he'd provide some easy food.

Mama had insisted they open the small box last. Inside Kagome found her mother and father's wedding rings.

Stunned, Kagome looked up at her mother.

"Oh, Mama, are you sure?" she whispered. The rings had spent the last ten years in the family shrine, beside a picture of Kagome's father.

"Yes, I'm sure," Mama replied. "It's time they went back into the world again. Take them with my blessing and all of my love."

Kagome hugged her mother tightly, crying. Mama returned the hug, then embraced InuYasha, teary-eyed, and excused herself.

Kagome sat holding the rings, still overwhelmed by the enormity of the gift. "Oh, my god," she murmured, "I can't believe she did that."

1


	6. Chapter 6 Becoming One

Chapter 6 - Becoming One

The game of the gods is much like go; markers are placed, territories are enclosed and captured. Some of the roiling zones of turmoil that Muchitsujo-rei had built were being eroded, their turbulence abating. Muchitsujo-rei spiraled away from the barrier guarding the abode of the dead, howling in frustration. He spread himself wide on the currents of time and fate and rode the upwelling of a large battle to a great height, absorbing the heat and passion of the battle. From there, he studied the flowing game field below him and placed markers.

In a northern village, a fiery young man watched his grandfather hand over some of his family's seed rice to pay the taxes. Not only would they be hungry this year, but next year as well. That night, he met with other young men of the village.

Near a western castle, a warlord's eldest son was ambushed and assassinated by agents of the neighboring lord. The warlord howled vows of vengeance as he and his wife wept over their golden boy.

A powerful warlord died heirless in the south. Four of his vassals looked hungrily at the domain, plotting how to seize it.

Three new zones of turbulence erupted as the markers defined new territories.

--------------------

Kaede was bundling herbs to dry when Kagome and InuYasha came to visit. It was the day before the wedding.

"Good morning, Kaede-obaa-chan," Kagome said as they approached Kaede's house. Kagome was carrying an ornate book and a small box.

"Good morning, Kagome, InuYasha," Kaede replied, smiling at them. "What can I help you with?"

"Can we talk to you for a few minutes about tomorrow's ceremony?" Kagome asked.

"Oh, of course," Kaede replied, laying aside the herbs. "Come inside."

They all entered the house. InuYasha and Kagome sat by the fire as Kaede set on the kettle for tea.

"Now, let me see what you have?" Kaede asked, settling herself in front of them.

Kagome opened the box and pulled two rings from it, which she laid in Kaede's hand, saying, "Last night, my mother gave me her and my father's wedding rings. It would mean a lot to her and to me if we could get the rings into the ceremony."

Kaede examined the rings, a simple matched set of a man's ring and a woman's ring made of gold, with a sparkling white jewel inlaid in the woman's ring. She felt a powerful beneficence radiating from them.

"I have no objection to adding anything to the ceremony that is compatible with its purpose," she said, "but I know nothing of these rings and how they are used."

"The bride and groom put them on each other's fingers when they exchange vows," Kagome explained.

"Ahh, I see," Kaede said, thinking. "Perhaps we can add them to the ceremony as an addition to the traditional vow. What manner of vows are spoken for a ring ceremony?"

"I have a copy of my parents' vows written in this book," Kagome said, leafing through the book she had brought with her. It was filled with pictures, notes and a few printed papers. "Let's see, where is that page?"

She stopped on a page that had on one side a photo of a pair of hands wearing the rings, and on the other side, in an ornate calligraphy, the vows.

"Here it is. This says 'Forsaking all others, I, Akira, take you, Makiko, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.'"

A jolt ran through Kaede. It appeared the gods had just arranged to have the spell and the artifacts she needed delivered to her.

"Is there something wrong?" Kagome asked, as Kaede seemed to have become lost in thought.

"No. No. These vows are very compatible with the traditional wedding," Kaede said. "Are they what you want to say? Since it isn't a normal part of the ceremony, we can be flexible."

Kagome and InuYasha glanced at each other a moment and nodded.

"Very well," Kaede said. "One last thing: do the rings fit?"

"Oh!" Kagome exclaimed, "I hadn't thought of that!"

Kaede handed over the rings and they tried them on; the rings fit exactly. It was far too convenient to be a coincidence.

"Shall I hold the rings until tomorrow?" Kaede asked.

"Yes, if you would, please," Kagome replied. She and InuYasha handed the rings back to Kaede, who replaced them in the box and tucked the box safely in her sleeve.

The kettle started steaming and Kaede made tea and passed around cups. She looked again at the book Kagome cradled in her arms.

"What else is in that book?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, this book is a book of memories from my parents' wedding. It has pictures of the families, a description of the ceremony, a list of who came, stuff like that."

"May I see?" Kaede asked

"Of course."

Kagome sat with Kaede on one side and InuYasha on the other and paged through the book, pointing out relatives and describing what was going on.

At the end, Kaede sighed and said, "It's so different from what you see today."

"Yes. Five hundred years is a long time."

"I was rather curious to see if your parents looked like mine. They look like very nice people, but they are not at all the same."

Kagome looked at a photo of her parents surrounded by both families. A strange thing, in a past life she had been Kaede's sister, but with the rebirth, the family ties were broken and completely new ones forged. A life reborn was not a life repeated. And still, here she was, back in time with the same man she had tried to marry once before. Would it work this time? Could it? Why was it so important that time itself had shifted to make it happen?

--------------------

The game of the gods is not like go. The playing field is not static, it flows with the currents of time and fate, sweeping markers along with it. Markers do not all have the same weight; some are placed as temporary tokens, they soon drift, but hopefully not before they have served their need. Others are anchor pieces, firm and heavy. The currents do not move them, they define the currents. And sometimes the markers are mutable. The River Woman watched irritably as a marker she had placed flickered and defected. A block she had placed suddenly completed an enclosure for Muchitsujo-rei. Civil war boiled up in lands to the west.

The Gatekeeper appeared at her side as she studied the new configuration.

"_We just received a new flood of the dead_," he announced grimly. "_Emma-O is not pleased. This group is as damaged as the last. It will be centuries before they can be reborn. We don't have room for this. Nor do I have souls ready to live again. I will have to send unready souls or allow children to be born soulless, an evil either way_."

The River Woman sighed. "_I asked Inari to place markers for good harvests. Some took hold but three or four were subverted when the daimyo appropriated the bounty as increased taxes_."

"_What about the project?_" the Gatekeeper asked.

The River Woman pointed out a marker she had placed. "_If all goes well, this should be an anchor piece within two days._"

The marker was hers, but it seethed restlessly with dark energy. Deep in its heart, a small glimmer of light held the darkness in check.

--------------------

Kaede carried the rings Kagome had entrusted to her into the shrine. She built up the fire, knelt before it and presented the rings to the gods, replaying what Kagome had told her about the rings. She opened her mind, asking them to add their own blessing to the rings.

The rings grew warm in her hand and glowed through her fingers. Kaede bowed, thanking the gods for their assistance, then withdrew, the rings once more safely in her sleeve.

--------------------

The rings had already been deeply imbued with the devotion of a happily married couple. Godlight flared as the cabal of gods each added strength and will to the rings. Their work accomplished, the gods dispersed.

Muchitsujo-rei saw the glimmer of godlight as he spiraled above the western war. Sensing trouble, he slipped out of the updraft and glided east.

--------------------

InuYasha awoke that morning feeling very edgy. An overwhelming feeling that something bad was about to happen had his hair bristling, his claws twitching. He sniffed at the fitful early morning breezes that drifted willy-nilly through the forest, finding nothing more than the scents of the small animals and vegetation he usually smelled.

He scoured the perimeter of the village lands, checking for any sign of intruders or malevolent magic. Everything was as it always was, but still the feeling of impending doom only intensified. He desperately wanted to get the wedding over with before whatever was going to happen started, and was half inclined to jump through the well to hurry Kagome along. He'd feel much better if he had her safely in his sight.

He made his way to the well, ready to escort Kagome the instant she came through. The ominous feeling continued to grow, and he found himself pacing circles around the well and peering down it frequently.

Shippo found him about half an hour later.

"There you are!" he said sternly, "We've been looking all over for you." He looked back into the forest and called, "Hey Miroku! He's over here!"

Miroku appeared from the forest a few moments later and joined them. He looked InuYasha over and said, "You can't be serious."

"What?" InuYasha was mystified.

Miroku grabbed his arm and started dragging him back toward the house, saying, "You are not going to your wedding looking like that!"

"What?!" InuYasha yelped. "Let go! I have to be here to meet Kagome when she comes through!"

He ripped his arm free of Miroku's grasp and returned to the well.

Miroku sighed, looking at the heavens, then said, "She's not coming through until noon. If it will make you feel better, I'll send Sango to watch for her. But you are taking a bath. Now, come on. Women prefer clean men."

InuYasha stared at Miroku, dumbfounded. The world felt about to explode and Miroku wanted him to take a bath? He set himself stubbornly by the well, saying, "I'm not going anywhere. There's something loose out there and I'm not going to spend my time on something as stupid as a bath until it's gone."

Miroku paused, sensing the air for any sign of trouble.

"What are you talking about? There isn't anything out there but a fine sunny day."

"I'm not getting anything in particular, just the feeling of something bad about to happen," InuYasha said.

Miroku grabbed his arm again, saying, "Since we can't find what it is yet, you might as well clean up now while you can."

InuYasha yanked himself loose again. "I'm not moving from here."

Miroku sighed again, saying, "All right, I'll bring over a bucket of water and you can use that to clean up right here." He disappeared into the forest and returned a few minutes later with a bucket, soap and a towel, which he plopped down in front of InuYasha.

As InuYasha bent to pick up the soap, Miroku slapped a demon-subduing ofuda on the back of his head. All of InuYasha's muscles went slack and he dropped to the ground.

"Miroku!" he howled, "You sneaky, slimy, devious bastard! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!"

Miroku slung InuYasha over his shoulder, saying, "Sorry, old boy, but I promised Kagome-sama I'd have you presentable for the ceremony."

He carried the fuming InuYasha back to the house then up the scramble to the hot spring. Shippo stood ready with an array of soap, shampoo, combs, brushes, towels and a tub of warm water.

"Shippo! Are you in on this plot too?" InuYasha snarled. "You two are going to pay for this!"

"I expect so," Miroku said cheerfully. "OK, let's strip him."

Ignoring InuYasha's howls of protest, Miroku and Shippo stripped off his clothes and tossed them into the tub. Shippo got straight to work washing them.

Miroku carried InuYasha to a large flat rock near the hot spring's pool, set him down and placed his hands about three feet apart.

"Shippo, if you would..." he said. Shippo stopped with the clothes for long enough to place one of his little idols on each of InuYasha's hands, pinning them. Miroku then removed the ofuda. All of the strength returned to InuYasha's muscles, and he kicked out at Miroku in a temper.

"Ah, Ah, Ahhh," Miroku said, waving the ofuda at InuYasha. "I can always put it back on."

"Thought of everything, didn't you, you underhanded excuse of a monk," InuYasha growled, glaring at Miroku.

"I certainly hope so," Miroku replied, filling a bucket from the hot spring and dumping it over InuYasha's head. He then got to work thoroughly scrubbing InuYasha as InuYasha described his ancestry in the least complimentary terms possible.

Two hours later, Miroku and Shippo were still hard at work, untangling and brushing InuYasha's mane. His clothes, now several shades lighter and a much brighter red, were draped over bushes, drying. InuYasha had given up fighting and was wallowing in an epic sulk. Shippo was making good progress on his side, but Miroku was struggling with a section of hair at the base of InuYasha's neck. Frustrated, he lifted the hair for a look at the mess underneath.

"Ooooh, check out that mat!" he groaned.

Shippo looked and whistled through his teeth. "That thing's huge! Gosh, InuYasha, do you ever wash up, or do you just fall in a river once in a while?"

Stinging, InuYasha snapped a sudden kick at Shippo, snarling, "Just what did Kagome say to you two?"

Shippo dodged as Miroku said, "She just asked us to see if we could talk you into looking a bit less scruffy than usual."

"Scruffy!" Temper rising, InuYasha aimed the next kick at Miroku. Miroku whacked him sharply across the back with his staff, winding him, then grabbed his side locks and forced him to meet his eye.

"Let's get one thing straight right now," he said, "After we're done here, you are going to drop the attitude and be cheerful for the rest of the day. You are not going to ruin this day for Kagome-sama by being in a royal snit when she gets here. Just once, let her think you did something just to please her."

InuYasha dropped his eyes and looked away.

"I would do anything for Kagome," he said huskily.

"Really," Miroku said, unimpressed. "You might start acting like it now and then."

--------------------

The godlight was gone when Muchitsujo-rei arrived. Uncertain of the location, he cast about like a hunting dog sniffing back and forth for its traces. There was nothing obvious, just the usual increase in sacred intensity near the shrine, the random tracks of youki left by passing demons. The forest was filled with auras of its resident demons. Really, nothing unusual.

--------------------

Kagome spent the morning with her mother, carefully arranging her hair and making her face up in an elaborate traditional style. She slid her mother's wedding kimono into her backpack for the trip, not wanting to sully the sumptuous silks on a scramble out of the well. She hugged her mother goodbye, promising to return as soon as she could to tell her all about it.

Sango was there to meet her at the well, her two daughters, Hisui and Shinju, playing in the meadow as they waited. Shinju, who was about 18 months old, was solemnly marching out to the field, plucking a flower at a time and returning to put the flower in Sango's lap. The three year old Hisui was stalking grasshoppers.

"Oh, Sango, they're so cute!" Kagome said, spotting the girls as she emerged.

"Would you believe I had them scrubbed and brushed this morning?" Sango said ruefully, looking at the tangled hair and smudged faces.

"Well, let's get them fixed up," Kagome said. "I'm going to need help with my kimono too."

--------------------

It was very subtle, but Muchitsujo-rei finally found what he was looking for. Other gods had been here and had been toying with the local currents of fate. Some current was building strength right now, a current that threatened to dampen the turbulence of the area. He must do something to halt it.

--------------------

Miroku had seen fit to release InuYasha at last. He dressed quickly as Miroku and Shippo changed into clean clothes and brushed and combed themselves. That feeling he had been harboring all day intensified; whatever it was, it was getting closer. He sniffed at the wind and looked and listened in all directions, but still could detect nothing material to substantiate the feeling. Praying fervently he could get through the day without a disaster, he and his friends returned to the house to collect the women.

--------------------

Once she had finished helping Sango clean up and dress her girls, Kagome slid her wedding kimono out of the pack and shook it open. Shimmering snow white satin in a beautiful chrysanthemum brocade billowed out and draped itself over her. She slid into it and pulled out the obi, directing Sango through the intricate knot that held it in place. She then put on her head dress with Sango carefully pinning it in place. Sango slid into her dress kimono and Kagome tied her obi for her. Then both women checked each other for final adjustments. Sliding on satin slippers and sandals, they turned to the door.

InuYasha stood in the door frame, his clothes a more vivid red than she had ever seen them, his silvery hair almost glowing. For once, he actually looked like he might be the scion of an demon lord and a noblewoman. He was gazing at Kagome, transfixed.

"Ready?" he asked softly, holding out his hand.

She nodded and, taking his hand, joined him.

"Let's go."

Miroku, Sango, Shippo and the girls falling in behind them, they started toward the shrine.

--------------------

The River Woman placed a gleaming white marker over her roiling dark one. They began to meld together.

--------------------

The Marriage god, Musubi-no-Kami, felt the call of a wedding and entered the shrine. As Kaede gathered the cups and carefully stacked them on their tray and poured the sake for the ceremony into its vessel, he cleansed the shrine and erected barriers to repel evil.

--------------------

A hanyou escorting a young woman in bridal clothes caught Muchitsujo-rei's attention. The hanyou swirled with dark energy, as dark, roiling and full of electricity as a thunderstorm. Beside him, the young woman glowed a shining white, as vivid in her brilliance as he was in his darkness. Several ties already reached between the two, the completion of the binding was eminent. He flowed quickly down to intercept them. Barriers sprang up to thwart him as he approached the shrine. How long had this been in the works?

Muchitsujo-rei could not overtly enter the shrine, so he slid into the body of Miroku's younger daughter. Anchoring himself firmly in place, he looked out through the young girl's eyes. Ahead of him, hanyou and woman were entering the village shrine, elegantly dressed and holding hands. An old miko was waiting for them under the Tori gate. She greeted them, then led the procession into the shrine's main building, stopping before the altar.

Muchitsujo-rei considered the situation. He should be able to claim the hanyou if he sullied the woman's purity. Mortals were easy prey. He stretched a link to the young woman, reaching out a marker.

--------------------

As Kagome knelt before the altar, receiving the purification rite from Kaede before commencing with the wedding, she felt like she was looking from two viewpoints, one using her own eyes and the other from some vantage point behind her. It was profoundly disorienting, and she took a firm grip on herself, forcing the external viewpoint to dissolve.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei reeled under the force of Kagome's push. Shutting down his touch with Kagome, he shrank herself to a tiny mote and concentrated on hanging on and staying hidden. Musubi-no-Kami had alerted when Muchitsujo-rei had reached out and was actively seeking the source. Muchitsujo-rei could sense other gods turning toward the shrine as they detected Kagome's energy flare. The push finally relaxed and he carefully resettled himself in Shinju. He tried to get the girl to focus on the wedding, but the child had already become bored with it and was watching a dragonfly that had blundered into the shrine fly about. Muchitsujo-rei was unable to covertly grasp control of any part of the girl for more than a moment at a time; frustrated, he took whatever he could get.

--------------------

Kaede completed the beginning prayer, hoping the gods were present and ready to support her. She felt the presence of an hostile spirit in the shrine. She turned from the altar and began the ceremony of the cups, pouring a small amount of sake into the topmost of three stacked cups and handing the cup to the nervous InuYasha. He gathered himself into a semblance of calm and drank the sake in three meditative sips, then handed the cup to Kagome. Kaede poured the sake again and Kagome drank it in three sips, then handed the cup to Kaede, who put it aside. Kaede poured sake into the second cup, and handed it to Kagome. Kagome drank the three sips and handed the cup to InuYasha, who then received his sake and drank his three sips. He handed the second cup to Kaede. Kaede repeated the ceremony with the third cup, starting with InuYasha.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei was unable to see more than flashes of the ceremony as the girl's eyes scanned around, following the dragonfly, but he was able to tap into what the girl heard without forcing any control.

The dragonfly circled around the altar's fire a couple of times, as Kaede opened a small box, took rings from it and handed one each to Kagome and InuYasha.

Taking a deep breath, InuYasha slid a ring partway onto Kagome's finger and said, "Forsaking all others, I, InuYasha, take you, Kagome, to be my wedded wife, to protect and care for from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live. I will love and honor you all the days of my life."

He slid the ring the rest of the way onto her finger, where it glowed briefly, absorbing his vow.

Muchitsujo-rei started. This was bigger than he thought. He grabbed control of the child, intent on seizing the other ring while he could. Musubi-no-Kami surged into Shinju too and wrestled him for control of the girl. Shinju cried loudly in outrage, protesting her treatment. Sango picked her up and whisked her out of the shrine.

--------------------

Kagome slid the other ring partway onto InuYasha's finger and said, "Forsaking all others, I, Kagome, take you, InuYasha, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live. I will love and honor you all the days of my life."

She slid the ring the rest of the way onto his finger, where it glowed briefly, absorbing her vow.

Moved by an impulse, Kaede placed her hand over InuYasha's and Kagome's hands and said, "What the gods have brought together, let no other split asunder." Both rings responded to the invocation.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei and Musubi-no-Kami battled furiously within Shinju as Sango soothed what appeared to be a sudden temper tantrum. Musubi-no-Kami the girl as the ceremony ended; Muchitsujo-rei departed, realizing he had lost this round.

--------------------

Sango returned to the shrine as InuYasha finished reciting the formal Shinto vow and Kagome added her name at the end.

InuYasha and Kagome rose and offered twigs of the sacred tree to the altar to honor the gods and bowed, completing the ceremony.

--------------------

InuYasha's agitation receded rapidly as the ceremony concluded. The ominous feeling was now gone. He wondered about the glow of the rings, though. He tried to slip the ring off, but it wouldn't budge, though he could spin it around his finger easily. Just what kind of spell had old Kaede placed on the rings?

--------------------

The River Woman's tokens were now one, half dark and half light, joined in a swooping curve limned in gold. Only one act remained.

1


	7. Chapter 7 Completion

Chapter 7 - Completion

Muchitsujo-rei departed the earthly world and sought the realm of the gods, which lay outside of time and place. From this vantage, he studied the pattern of markers that lay on the field. Many things had changed while he had been occupied at the border of the land of the dead. Kyoto was still a hotbed of contention, but someone had been placing markers at many locations in time around Edo, opening a new nexus of activity. He had encountered an anchor piece nearing the completion of its formation. There was a small window of opportunity on this marker which would potentially expand its influence and hasten the completion of the zone of tranquility under construction. The window was about to close; perhaps he could delay the piece's completion until then. He selected a marker and placed it near the anchor.

--------------------

There was a small reception at the village square; the bridal pair receiving the congratulations of the village elders and other well wishers for a couple of hours, and sharing rounds of drinks and snacks with those attending. As the guests drifted away, Miroku procured a couple of bottles of sake and a basket of food to carry back to the house, saying, "All right, now that that's over with, let's get on with the real party."

As they approached the house, Miroku and Sango's daughters asked permission to play outside.

"After you've changed," Sango said, "and Kirara needs to be with you."

At the house, they all had to sit in close around the firepit. The main room of the house was lined with unpacked boxes from moving day; Kagome's shelves were still only half installed, awaiting her final directions. Miroku put the sake near the fire to heat while Kagome took a moment to change from the wedding kimono to more practical clothes in the bed chamber.

Shippo peered hopefully at the basket of food and asked, "Are there any sweet buns in there, Miroku?

"Of course there are," the monk replied, handing him one.

"Great!" Shippo settled himself by the fire and happily started on the bun.

"Which one of these boxes has cups?" Miroku asked Kagome, starting to rummage in one of the closer boxes.

"Umm, this one," Kagome said, pulling another box down and opening it. The cups were a good bit bigger than what was normal for sake.

"Oh, well," Miroku said, "I guess it's what we've got." He tested the sake briefly, poured a round for everyone and passed the cups around.

"A long life and many sons!" he toasted, then swallowed a gulp. Everyone else drank a moderate sip.

"The blessings of loving companionship," Sango toasted. Again they drank. Miroku refilled his cup and InuYasha's. InuYasha stared at his cup, wondering where the sake had gone, since he had only drunk two sips. He checked the cup for cracks or leaks, but found nothing.

"A place to belong and friends for life," Shippo added. Again the cups were raised.

"The end of past sorrows and a new beginning," Kaede said, completing the round of toasts. A final time the cups were raised. Miroku again filled his cup and InuYasha's.

"Isn't that about enough?" Kagome whispered to InuYasha.

"I've only had four sips," he whispered back.

"So where is it going?" Kagome asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

Kagome looked at him hard; he didn't look drunk.

Miroku, on the other hand, was definitely starting to feel his sake.

"Hey, InuYasha," he exclaimed gaily, "now that you've married the girl, are you finally going to kiss her? You do it like this!" He grabbed Sango and swooped in for a sloppy smooch.

Caught by surprise, Sango flailed a bit before she managed to shove Miroku off.

"Houshi-sama!" she hissed, pulling herself back together.

"I don't need lessons," InuYasha said, blushing.

"Are you sure? I've got years of experience to offer."

"He does just fine," Kagome said, hoping to shut Miroku down.

"OK, let's check out your technique." Miroku leaned over for a better view of the anticipated kiss.

InuYasha and Kagome both blushed brightly.

"All right, Houshi-sama, that's enough," Sango said firmly.

Miroku, however, was on a roll.

"I know what we should do," he said, reaching for the remainder of the sake, "Let's go up to that marvelous hot spring of yours and have a nice soak. The spring will even keep the sake warm for us."

"Uh, maybe later," Kagome said, "I'd rather eat first."

Miroku looked disappointed, but everyone else leaped into the new activity with gusto.

Kirara returned with the girls while they were eating, carrying the little one by her robe. Sango put Shinju down for a nap, promising her a bun when she woke up, and getting a plate of food for Hisui.

"Those are the cutest little girls," Kagome told Miroku.

"With a mother that pretty, how could we miss?" Miroku replied. "We should get a little brother for them next time. Lucky number three!"

"You don't like girls?" Sango asked, bristling a bit.

"Girls are marvelous, but variety is an excellent thing," Miroku explained with a kiss. Sango allowed herself to be mollified.

The afternoon wore away as the old friends caught up and reminisced. As evening descended, Miroku and Sango got caught up in putting their girls to bed. Kaede had left earlier and Shippo was starting to look sleepy too. InuYasha caught Kagome's eye and nodded toward the door. They quietly got up and slipped outside while Miroku and Sango settled a small commotion.

Outside, the evening was fading into darkness; the first stars had just started to come out. InuYasha pulled Kagome close and kissed her.

"Come for a walk with me?" he asked quietly. Kagome glanced at the door; it seemed rude to just vanish.

"Someone will just come with us if we say anything," InuYasha said, taking her hand. Deciding she really didn't want Miroku leering after them, Kagome agreed.

Sango noticed them missing a couple of moments later. She looked out the door as they reached the edge of the forest and stopped for another kiss, then saw them disappear into the trees, holding hands. She smiled, whispered, "Good night" after them and returned to her family.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei scowled as he watched the progress of his marker. It was drifting away from the nascent anchor; only a small chance remained for it to change the course of events enough to delay the completion of the anchor.

--------------------

Nervous and shy, InuYasha and Kagome walked through the forest, then climbed a hill out of the trees and sat in a small meadow to look at the stars. InuYasha put his arm around Kagome and drew her close, resting his head lightly on hers.

"Are you scared?" he asked softly. He could feel her trembling slightly.

"A bit," she confessed.

"Me too."

Somehow, that made it less scary. They sat silently a while longer, then InuYasha said, "I spent half the day waiting for something awful to happen."

"Oh, InuYasha," Kagome cried, "you mean like what happened to you and Kikyo?"

"Something like that."

Kagome put her arm around him and hugged him. "What a way to celebrate your wedding!" she said sympathetically.

"Yeah, really."

They sat companionably a while longer, watching the moon rise. Kagome's shivering became more pronounced.

"You must be getting cold," InuYasha murmured, taking off his kimono and wrapping it around both of them. He lay back, pulled Kagome onto his chest and gave her a long, sweet kiss.

--------------------

The kisses had gone from sweet to smoldering. InuYasha nibbled gently on Kagome's ear then nuzzled his way along her neck, breathing in her intoxicating scent as he went. Kagome was running her hands through his hair and drawing him close for another hungry kiss when she knocked loose a small lump that bounced to the ground protesting, "Please, InuYasha-shama, jus' let me shleep."

InuYasha and Kagome stared down at Myoga the flea in profound shock.

"How long has he been there?" Kagome gasped.

"I have absolutely no idea," InuYasha said in a blazing fury. "What the hell do you think you're doing hitching a ride on my wedding night?!" he snarled at the hapless flea, mashing him hard into the ground.

Myoga blinked blearily up at their outraged faces.

"Your wed...? But Mas..." He faltered, hiccuped and thought a moment. "I jus' drank a bit of sake and wen' to bed."

"In my hair!" InuYasha pointed out.

"Well, yes," Myoga allowed, then said "Oh, my!" as it hit him.

"Finally figured it out, huh?" InuYasha glared at the flea, plucked him up by the shirt and shook him hard.

"Oh, my head!" Myoga groaned.

"Listen up, you stinking little parasite," declared InuYasha softly and dangerously, "I'm not your bed anymore. Not now, not ever. Is that clear?"

"Y..y..yes, InuYasha-sama," Myoga stammered, "Of course, InuYasha-sama."

"Now, I'm going to give you a head start. The village is that way," InuYasha pointed into the trees. "I don't want to see you again for a really long time. Is that clear?"

"Y..yes, Master."

InuYasha stood up and threw Myoga in the direction of the village as hard as he could, then sat back down, still fuming.

"You don't have any other little surprises on you, do you?" Kagome snapped.

"What?! Don't take this out on me!" he snapped back. "Maybe we should check you over for passengers too!"

"Oh! You pig!" Kagome cried, turning her back on him.

InuYasha sat with his back to Kagome and glowered into the forest. Damn that flea! He'd ruined everything! InuYasha hoped he had bounced off a couple of trees hard when he had landed.

As her rage and resentment wore off, Kagome started to cry. It had been going so well until that stupid flea had turned up. Now she couldn't see any way to salvage the night. She sniffled and looked back at InuYasha, who was just as miserable as she was in his own way.

"I'm sorry I said that," she apologized, "I was just so angry I wasn't thinking."

"I know," he sighed, looking around and pulling her close. She buried her face in his shoulder and cried some more while he stroked her hair.

Cried out, she looked up and said, "So, the only demon we had to do battle with today was that idiot flea. Kind of a step down for us."

InuYasha almost laughed. It was an absurd picture.

"That'll teach me to pay too much attention to bad feelings," he remarked, "Of course, they don't usually miss by that much."

"Let's forget Myoga," Kagome said, "He can only ruin the night if we let him." She kissed his cheek and blew in his ear.

He flicked the ear a few times, complaining, "Do you have any idea how much that tickles?"

She pounced, giggling and said, "You are severely overdue for a good tickling!"

"What?!" The sensation was extraordinary. After a brief tussle during which InuYasha mostly guarded his ribs, he managed to capture Kagome by the wrists and pin her down, laughing.

She looked very enticing lying there on the grass with her hair in a wave about her head and her dark eyes sparkling with mischief. He covered her face, teased her lips, with feathery kisses, whisper-light, barely brushing her skin.

"Not fair!" she protested breathlessly.

"Who ever said anything about fair?" he answered, kissing her long and hard. He released her hands as she melted into the kiss. Freed, she slid her arms around him and pulled him in for more.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei's marker floated away beyond its reach of the anchor. The window closed.

--------------------

The night was still and silent when InuYasha awoke, the quiet mirroring the stillness in his soul. For the first time in his life, he felt like an unrippled pool, transparent, untroubled, no currents within to stir the mud below, no winds above to roil the surface. He wondered if this was what the nirvana the Buddhists sought was like.

Overhead, the stars flickered silently. Somewhere in the meadow, a cricket chirped meditatively. Kagome's breathing kept time with the cricket as she slept nestled in his arms, her head on his shoulder.

He hugged her gently and kissed her forehead as he tried to make sense of the mad jumble of emotions that had ignited into a blaze of cathartic passion as they finally released all their long contained longings and needs and fiercely made love. He shied away from the remembered fire, not wanting to lose the peace that pervaded him.

Kagome stirred and opened her eyes.

"Good morning," he said, stroking her hair.

"Is it?" she asked, snuggling a bit closer.

"Just barely," he replied.

"The stars are beautiful," she said, looking up.

"Mmm..." he agreed.

Kagome sighed contentedly and rolled up to give him a hug. "I might just forgive Myoga in a year or two," she said.

"A year or two, huh?" he commented, "And I thought I was angry."

"Oh?"

"I think I can stand to see his pointy little snout in about three months."

"Hm," Kagome shrugged. "Well, we're not going to see him for at least six months. He won't have the guts."

"Won't break my heart any."

InuYasha pulled her closer and nuzzled her neck. They shared a lazy kiss, then cuddled together to watch the stars fade into dawn.

--------------------

In the swirled figure of the River Woman's anchor piece, a glowing white circle appeared in the dark half and a turbulent dark circle appeared in the bright half.

The final exchange had taken place. The hanyou now had a strong bright core in the center of his soul that was capable of controlling his dark energy. The woman had acquired a core of magical power to replace what had faded when she relinquished her virginity.

The figure was complete. The River Woman settled it into the heart of a powerful current; it spread roots that locked it into the playing field. The current ran up hard against it and, dashing its strength against the anchor, spread and settled into a slow lazy pace as it reformed on the other side.

1


	8. Chapter 8 Housekeeping for Three

Chapter 8 - Housekeeping for Three

Kagome awoke at dawn two days after the wedding, shivering slightly from the early morning chill. InuYasha had slipped out a couple of hours earlier to do a quick inspection tour around the village grounds. She dressed quickly, built up the fire and put on a kettle of water, then went back to the bed chamber to put away the futon. Brewing some tea from the now-hot water, she sat back to savor the morning. Looking at her neat little house with pleasure in the brightening light, she considered what she should do. Here it was, the first real day of her new life. It was time to get her act together.

There really weren't any chores to do yet. She and Sango had spent the better part of the previous day unpacking all the boxes and stashing their contents away and generally catching up with each other's lives while the guys slipped away with the children. Miroku and Sango had departed shortly afterward for their own home, leaving her with a pink-nosed and oddly grumpy InuYasha. ("Just what _were_ you two talking about, anyway?") This would be a good day to meet with Kaede and set up a schedule for training in healing and herbology. Now that she was married, it was unlikely that she still had any of those spiritual abilities that were special to mikos. And she really ought to get in some more archery practice; it was still a toss-up whether or not she'd hit a moving target.

Rooting around the house for something to eat, she quickly realized she would need to round up some provisions. She put together a list of basic needs.

Shippo drifted in as she finished the list.

"G'Morning, Kagome," he yawned, looking around sleepily. "Anything to eat?"

"We still have a couple of sweet buns left," Kagome offered. "I'll be getting more in the village today."

The buns were getting stale, but the tea helped. They were just cleaning up when InuYasha arrived.

"Morning," he said, "What's for breakfast?"

"Ummm, not much," Kagome allowed. "We killed off the last two stale buns and I need to get some stuff in the village."

"No problem," InuYasha replied. "I'll just hit up one of the ramen cups."

"The water's hot," Kagome offered sheepishly. She really ought to have things under better control.

"Great!" InuYasha snatched a ramen cup off the shelf and set himself up. "Where are you off to?" he asked as Kagome armed herself with a basket and a couple of cloth bags.

"Well, we do need food," she replied, "and I'm going to check in with Kaede-obaa-chan to see what she wants me to help her with. I ought to be back around noon."

" 'K, see you later," InuYasha said around a mouthful of noodles.

After a couple of hours of discussing her training, Kaede escorted Kagome around the village, introducing her to all of her contacts for food and other provisions, Saito-san at the fish ponds, Kurato-san and Wataru-san for rice, Masao-san and Miyako-san for fruit and vegetables, Natsuko-san had chickens, Aiko-san for brewed goods like soy sauce, vinegar and sake and Shizuyo-san had tea and some common spices. Each stop required a formal introduction and a chat over tea. It was late afternoon before Kagome made it back up the hill with full bags and basket and a cheerful Kurato-san following her with a large basket of rice for her rat-proof urn.

InuYasha was working himself into a temperamental fit of pique when she got back home. "You said noon," he accused, scowling, as she put down her burden and directed Kurato-san into the store room.

She sighed and smiled placatingly at him. "It took longer that I thought. I got introduced to all of our suppliers and there was a chat and tea at each stop. Anyway, I have dinner: pumpkin, cabbage, daikon, fish and rice. And I have my basic cooking ingredients."

She stopped to thank Kurato-san again as he left, then put her arms around InuYasha's neck and kissed him. "Forgive me?"

He blushed slightly and looked flustered. "Umm..."

"Good." She hugged him until he relaxed, then let go, saying, "I'd better start dinner." She turned her attention to the food. A pretty simple set of ingredients, how hard can this be?

She was still scaling the fish when she smelled the rice burning. By the time she found the hot pads and hauled the pan off the fire, it was way too late. Pulling open the lid, she stared, dismayed, at the charred mass of rice inside. Oh, man. She couldn't even scoop it out and start over; it was burned deep into the pan. Cringing at the amount of work that was going to take, she checked the pumpkin and pulled it off the fire just in time, then returned to the fish.

Finally she had it all together: pumpkin braised in soy sauce, pickled cabbage, shredded daikon and grilled fish with a soy and sake marinade.

Shippo had set the table while she cooked, so they all sat quickly as Kagome divided the food.

"Man, I'm starving," InuYasha remarked as he took his choopsticks and picked up a piece of fish.

Shippo chimed in with, "Me too. I had to smell it while she cooked," as he plucked up some cabbage.

Kagome's piece of pumpkin was only halfway to her mouth when the guys stopped suddenly, a startled look on their faces. InuYasha coughed; Shippo's eyes teared up. What in the world...? She looked at her piece of pumpkin for a moment, slowly placed it in her mouth, then coughed sharply too. Dear God, that was salty! What had happened? It was just a braise in soy sauce; she'd done it lots of times before. -- Soy sauce.

"Uh, just a moment guys, I want to check something." She got up and hurried to the store room. She tasted a drop of the soy sauce for the first time, her tongue nearly shriveling from the intense onslaught of the salt. She'd have to cut it twenty to one to make it palatable. In a way, it made sense. Nothing that salty could possibly spoil, and the jug she had would last for months as she diluted just the bit she needed in a cruet. But if the soy sauce was that way, then what about the vinegar? She tasted a drop of it and gasped, her eyes tearing up and flowing. OK, it needed cut too.

She emerged from the store room and said apologetically, "Sorry. The vinegar and soy sauce aren't like they are at home. It won't happen again."

"So what are we going to do?" Shippo asked dolefully as he looked at what had promised to be a lovely dinner.

"The daikon should be OK. I just shredded it. Ramen for the rest?" Kagome suggested.

"Yeah." InuYasha reloaded the kettle with water as Kagome pulled a few packages of ramen.

With enough hot water poured over it and ramen noodles to add bulk, the catastrophic dinner became a decent enough, if strangely flavored, soup for breakfast.

----------------

It had taken a good chunk of the morning and nearly all afternoon to clean out the rice pot. All right, she'd blown yesterday, but it was still just rice. Keep it farther back from the fire and she should be set. How hard can this be?

It wasn't burnt, but it didn't look quite right as Kagome dished it out at dinner. There was a rather odd contemplative look on the guys faces as they chewed it. Cautiously, she tried her bite. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The centers of the grains were still uncooked. Hmm. Less heat wasn't right.

----------------

Something was different. InuYasha didn't wake up fully, but the danger-detector deep in the bottom of his consciousness started analyzing the change. Foxy smell. His nose twitched. The rational part of his mind said, 'Shippo's living here; got to expect foxy smell.' Yeah, but he was already accustomed to the background odor of fox in the shared part of the house. This was fresh and close.

InuYasha rolled over and started wide awake as his face went into an unexpected mass of tickly fluff. Coughing and spitting, he sat bolt upright and glared down to find Shippo cuddled up against Kagome, asleep. Furious, he snatched Shippo up by the offending tail and snarled, "What the fuck are you doing in my bed!?"

Jolted rudely awake himself, Shippo's eyes bugged when he found himself staring inches from InuYasha's angry golden glare.

"Don't eat me!" he yowled in a panic, squirming frantically.

"Don't eat... Who the hell'd want to eat that much fuzz?" InuYasha retorted. "But. Surely even you could have figured out this is the absolute last place in the world I ever want to find you. Fella rolls over to snuggle his wife and gets a damned fox tail up his nose."

Shippo curled up to inspect his tail. "Ewww. There better not be any dog snot in my fur."

InuYasha shook Shippo to get his attention. "Hellooo! Let's go over this again! Your place is out there!"

With that, he threw Shippo out the door of the bed chamber.

Kagome roused to ask sleepily, "What's going on?"

"Nothing much," InuYasha answered, "Just dealing with a hairball."

----------------

Kagome stared at the rice pot. She had just finished washing the rice and was trying to figure out what to try this time. More heat and more water? More water didn't seem quite right, but what she thought was right had burned. OK, here we go; it's just rice. How hard can this be?

Kagome lifted the lid as dinner finished and looked at the slurry in the pot. Her shoulders drooped. Ohhhh, man. That just kind of corked it. The rest of dinner was a disaster too.

Ramen again.

----------------

Inuyasha had just finished dressing in the morning about a week after the wedding when Kagome marched up to him in the bed chamber and said, "I need your clothes."

He stared at her quizzically and commented, "You know, if you just wore more clothes, you'd do fine."

She made an impatient sound, then said, "I don't want to wear them. They are way overdue for a washing."

He looked down at his clothes and asked, "And what am I supposed to wear while you're washing them?"

She shoved a heavy blue cotton kimono in his hands, saying, "That. Oh, and while you're waiting, you might want to take a bath. You're getting a bit," she fished for a word, "gamy."

"Gamy," he repeated, staring at the kimono as she turned on her heel and marched back out of the room. "It never bothered you before!" he yelled at her retreating back.

She spun around long enough to retort, "I wasn't sleeping with you before."

He stared at her, aghast. It sounded like she intended to throw him out of the bed if he didn't meet her standards. Could she actually get away with it? No, he decided, but she certainly had the tools to make his life miserable in other ways.

Halfway to the hot spring, he stopped and sniffed himself. 'Gamy?' And just when that damned froofy smell from the pre-wedding bath was finally starting to wear off. He looked sourly into the basket Kagome had shoved in his hands as he headed out the door; just what he needed, more froofy smells. Maybe she'd be satisfied if he just rinsed off in the spring. Yeah, right, the Queen of Baths, who was up here daily, was going to let him get off with a quick rinse. When it came right down to it, he didn't like the way her soaps and lotions buried her scent, but was she going to listen?

He poked moodily at the bottles in the basket and sniffed them. The scents conjured up Kagome's image so vividly he could almost feel her warmth beside him. There are worse things than walking in a cloud of your lover's aromas, he thought. Maybe he'd take that bath.

----------------

Kagome had been fussing around the fire for most of the afternoon, working on some dish for dinner. InuYasha and Shippo had kept their distance while she worked, still stinging a bit from the caustic remarks she had shot at them in frustration the last time she had tried cooking on the fire. She pulled the pot off the fire and plopped it on the table as the Shippo gathered bowls and chopsticks to eat with. The three of them looked at the pot silently for a moment. InuYasha leaned over it and sniffed as Kagome dished out bowls. It didn't smell promising.

"So, what is it?" he asked cautiously.

Kagome looked a little anxious.

"Well, I started off trying to make sukiyaki, but I'm not sure what it is anymore."

They all glanced at each other and simultaneously plucked up a piece of food and tried it. It wasn't sukiyaki and it definitely wasn't good.

"Ramen!" Kagome declared as they hastily put down their bowls and put the kettle on to boil.

----------------

InuYasha woke up with Kagome snuggled against him. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair, putting his nose behind her ear and taking a deep breath. Her scent filled him with a quiet ecstasy. But this morning, something was subtly different. He sniffed again. Yes, it was definitely Kagome's scent, but something had changed overnight. Puzzled, he started sniffing Kagome methodically. Kagome shifted and squirmed under his attention.

"InuYasha, what are you doing? That tickles!" she said sleepily.

InuYasha continued his examination.

"You smell different," he murmured, still absorbed in discovering what had changed.

"Are you saying I need a bath?!" Kagome was scandalized; she was the stickler for cleanliness and it seemed a bit much that he was making comments.

"Hmm?" He surfaced from his reverie and blinked at her. "I didn't say you smelled bad. I said you smell different."

"Different how?" she asked, unconvinced.

"I'm still working on it," he said, returning to his examination.

Annoyed, Kagome sat up and glared at him. Sometimes, he was just way too doggish.

"That's enough!" she snapped. "Either you know or you don't!"

She bathed thoroughly that afternoon. It didn't make any difference.

----------------

A nice omelet, rice and steamed vegetables. Nothing could be simpler. Grimly, Kagome set the rice on to cook. (It's just rice! How...Hard...Can...This...BE?!) The vegetables were cut and in the steamer basket. OK, now for the omelet. She had managed to procure seven eggs, a rare treat this late in the year. She set up the omelet pan and started cracking the eggs into a bowl. Oh, this looked good. She cracked the last egg and cringed as it slid into the bowl with the others. It had been a bad one. And there was no way she could fish it out now. It was just too much. She collapsed on the table and dissolved into a teary puddle.

She was still sniffling when she took the rice off the fire and pulled a solid lump of tightly molded rice out of the pan and sliced it into wedges for everyone.

InuYasha looked at his dinner, nonplussed, then at his miserable wife. He poked at the rice a moment, then remarked, "You know, you've never blown it the same way twice. You're going to run out of ways to screw up eventually and then you'll be fine."

He'd intended to be encouraging. He really had. It was hard to believe that as he held his sobbing wife in his arms. In all truth, he really didn't care what was put in front of him. It was still a huge step ahead of hunting down whatever he could find in the forest. But she didn't want to hear that either. Finally, he just shut up and let her cry herself out.

After she had slunk off to bed, he checked the ramen supply. Oh, shit. The box was nearly three quarters gone. He couldn't let her know that.

When Kagome woke the next morning, she found a moment while Inuyasha was fetching firewood to check the ramen supply. That wasn't good. She hadn't realized they had been hitting it that hard. She had to restock.

Telling InuYasha she had promised her mother a visit, Kagome jumped through the well in the early afternoon.

InuYasha fretted on his rounds until midafternoon, then jumped through the well. Sota should be out of school by now.

After a cry on her mother's shoulder over how the last couple of weeks had gone, Kagome and her mother went shopping.

Inuyasha jumped up onto the sill and tapped on Sota's window.

Sota looked up from his computer and broke into a huge grin. "Inu-nii-chan, what brings you here?" he said as he opened the window to let him in.

"Damn it, keep it down!" InuYasha hissed as he climbed in.

"Relax," Sota answered, "I'm the only one here. What's with the sneaking around?"

"Then where's Kagome?" asked Inuyasha. "She said she was coming to visit."

"She and Mama took off into town about an hour ago," Sota replied. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"

InuYasha related a short version of the cooking debacles, then said, "What would it take to get another box of ramen?"

Sota emptied his pockets and counted the money. "Hmm, not quite enough." He poked through a couple of drawers, then dumped his backpack, rattling loose a few more coins. After a recount, he said, "That should do it, just barely."

Inuyasha looked at the little pile of money, a bit guilty that he was putting Sota out this much. "Is there any way I can make this up to you?"

Sota thought a moment, then a marvelous idea hit him. "Could you get me a samurai helmet?"

"Uhh, yeah. That's easy enough." There were several old battle sites littering the area around the village.

Sota beamed. "You got yourself a deal!"

InuYasha climbed back out the window, saying, "I'll see you tonight."

While InuYasha rooted through the remains of a nearby battle site, Kagome and her mother returned to find that Sota had left a note saying he'd be out for about an hour, but back in time for dinner. Kagome took her box of ramen and jumped through the well. She hid it in the woods and went to get Shippo to help her.

After dinner (the rice was dry and toasty), InuYasha "took a patrol round" to visit Sota with the helmet he had procured and returned with a box of ramen. He hid it in the woods and went to enlist Shippo to help him.

Shippo stared at the ceiling of his little room and wondered if things could possibly get any stupider. He was sworn to absolute secrecy by both Kagome and InuYasha about the new stashes of ramen which he was supposed to quietly feed into the official box whenever the other wasn't looking. The only problem was they had not returned with the same flavor. He sure hoped Kagome got the cooking thing down soon.

1


	9. Chapter 9 Little Things that Change All

Chapter 9 - The Little Things That Change The World

InuYasha and Shippo glanced at each other quickly then at the offering on the table. In the background, the kettle burbled, ready if today's installment of Adventures at Mealtime should prove inedible. Today it was a hot pot, largely a cook-it-yourself affair as long as the broth simmering gently before them passed muster. An array of sliced vegetables and fish lay in trays in front of each diner, along with a large bowl for catching the cooked food as it was fished out of the broth. Yet another attempt at rice sat beside the iron pot of broth, its lid still on, concealing what lay within.

Kagome took a deep steadying breath, shuddered slightly, then whipped to lid off the rice pot, her eyes clenched shut.

Silence.

"Who-oa. How did that happen?" That was Shippo. It was too much for her shattered nerves. She risked a look.

The rice at the edge of the pot, where it touched the metal, was lightly scorched. Inside was a ring of perfect rice with a bulls eye of undercooked crunchy rice in the middle.

InuYasha studied it for a moment, poking it with his chopsticks. "So, we're moving onto combinations, are we?" he remarked.

Shippo plucked out a bit of the crispy golden crust, saying, "This part's actually kind of good if it's not really burned."

It all just washed over Kagome as she continued to stare numbly at the rice. Deep, deep inside her, something whimpered, "How can this be so hard?" Feeling slightly ill, she sat on her cushion and listlessly fed some of her portion into the broth, removing it when it was cooked and morosely eating it. It tasted kind of funny to her, though she couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong.

The guys, however, were attacking dinner with enthusiasm. She sighed, watching them. They must have given up and decided this was the best they were going to get. She didn't know when she had ever felt like such a failure.

InuYasha looked up after he had consumed most of his food and saw she had just been picking at her portion.

"Something wrong with yours?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"No more than usual," she sighed glumly.

"You sure?" he insisted. "Mine was fine."

"Yeah! Mine too! Can we have it again tomorrow?" Shippo asked.

They must have orchestrated this to make her feel better. Kind of sweet, really, though it was just making her feel more guilty and miserable. They deserved better than this.

"Why don't you guys split the good rice?" she said, getting up to go to the storeroom. "I'll just fill mine in with ramen."

"Uh!" Shippo said, suddenly looking alarmed.

Both InuYahsa and Kagome looked at him oddly. What was his problem? He'd been doing a splendid job of restocking the ramen box. They both managed to sneak a "Can it!" look at him when the other wasn't looking. He looked like he was about to faint.

Kagome snaked an arm into the box and fished out a package of ramen, then stared at it. Pork? In an orange package? She was pretty sure she had come back with chicken in green packages. She glanced quickly at the table; InuYasha was watching his fish in the pot. She pointed at the package and shot a "What gives?" look at Shippo.

Shippo tried to quickly wave her off with a "Later" gesture, but InuYasha caught him at it. InuYasha looked from him to Kagome and saw the orange package, like he had expected to see. So why was Kagome acting like that was wrong somehow? And why was Shippo waving her off? Unless...

"Uh, Shippo, is there something going on that maybe I ought to know about?"

"No," Shippo said, truthfully as far as he was concerned, since there was no way InuYasha ought to know about his agreement with Kagome.

"Really." InuYasha looked from Shippo to Kagome, who smiled an artificially bright smile at him, then back to Shippo.

Meanwhile, Kagome considered Shippo's reactions. She could understand him waving her off until later, but why had he jumped so badly when she announced she was getting some ramen? And why was she not pulling up chicken? Unless...

She tipped the box so she could see into it in the light. One side was neatly stacked with green packages and the other side with orange. Come to think of it, Shippo had always been the one at the box for a while.

"Uh, Shippo, do you have something you want to tell me?"

"No," Shippo squeaked. Once again, it was the truth; he really didn't want to tell her anything.

"Really." Kagome reached into the box and pulled up a chicken ramen in her other hand and displayed both of them.

"So, then, how did this happen?" she asked.

"Don't kill me!" Shippo yelped, then ducked under the table to hide.

InuYasha looked at both packages for a moment, stunned, then under the table at the cringing Shippo.

"Awwww shit." He pointed at the ramen in Kagome's hand and asked, "How long have you..."

"About a week."

"Yeah. About a week."

"I just didn't want you to think I was such a failure."

"I just didn't want you to beat yourself up so hard."

The words tumbled over each other as they spoke at the same time, then stared at each other in mortified desperation.

Shippo took the opportunity to bolt from under the table and streak into his little den of a room, his tail streaming low and flat behind him.

InuYasha was the first to look away. He grimaced and said, "Would you just say it and get it over with?" He closed his eyes with resignation and waited for the expected face plant.

Instead, tears welled up in Kagome's eyes. She looked at the two packages of ramen in her hands and wailed, "I'm so hopeless. I mean, who can't even cook rice?"

InuYasha would have preferred the face plant; he knew what to do with a face plant. He and Kagome would snarl at each other for a while, he'd sulk for about an hour and they would go on. But she was crying again, and he was absolutely no good at handling crying women. In fact, he wouldn't even be in this mess if he had handled the last crying jag better. Maybe if he pissed her off...

"Well, you'd better get that rice cooking down pretty soon, or you're going to get fat eating all that ramen."

"Fat!" That struck a nerve. "FAT!?" A bit more than he had expected. "**SIT!**"

Wham! It was hard to believe the room had tatami mats. Sparkles of light danced before his eyes and his ears rang miserably. As soon as he could lift his head, he checked his nose gently. At least it wasn't broken. Wow. He hadn't hit the floor that hard in a long time. He looked up to find Kagome had stalked out of the room. They were back in familiar territory.

---------------------

"Now, now, InuYasha-sama, I'm sorry my great-nephew sent you here on this fool's errand. He's just looking for another way to get me to move in with him instead of living out here by myself. A youkai? Ridiculous. There's nothing here to interest a youkai. But since you're here, please, do come in for a bit of tea before you go. I really must take him to task for annoying you like that. I can't imagine where he came up with that notion."

Old Minoru turned slowly and shuffled back into his small house, stooping to put a kettle on the fire and moving to his cupboard for the teapot and some cups. Although he wasn't aware of it, he was a village project; everyone conspired to make sure the old gent was doing well.

InuYasha stepped into the house behind him. Eiichi was right; the smell of youki was distinct inside the house. Some minor youkai had found an easy living filching off the old man, who was now nearly blind and hard of hearing. But where was the little bastard?

Minoru placed the teapot and cups on the table and turned to get his tea jar. After his back was turned, the lid of the teapot lifted slightly then settled quickly again. InuYasha barely caught the end of the motion. Had he really seen that?

While the old man rummaged through the shelves, muttering to himself, InuYasha placed a finger over the teapot's spout and, holding the lid firmly in place, shook the teapot briskly a few times. He opened the lid to see what was inside. Something long, dark and very fast shot out of the pot and slithered up his sleeve in a panic. Equally startled, InuYasha dropped the pot which landed on the table, wobbling briefly to settle upright, and slapped at his arms and chest as the little youkai did a few laps looking for a way out of his shirt. It came out the neck of his shirt; they were eyeball to eyeball for a flash, then the youkai was scuttling away along the edge of the room seeking another hiding place. It leaped back into the cupboard as Minoru turned back toward the table with the tea jar and wound itself into a mortar.

Eyes locked on the mortar, Inuyasha silently rose from his seat and glided to the cupboard while Minoru felt for the lid of the teapot and spooned in the tea. As InuYasha's hand shot out over the mortar, the youkai slithered between his fingers. There was a quick frantic flurry of snatching after the leaping, bouncing youkai, then it abandoned the cupboard to spring to the table and rebound into the teapot just as old Minoru poured in the boiling water and slapped on the lid.

InuYasha was back in his seat when the old man looked up from placing the kettle back on the fire. He stared at the teapot, trying to figure out what to say.

"Aahhh..."

Between the blindness and deafness and being so caught up with playing the good host, the old man had not noticed the chaos erupting around him. He was still oblivious as he rose and went back to the cupboard, exclaiming, "Oh, I nearly forgot I had them. Nothing goes with this tea quite so well as salted plums. Now, where did I put them?"

His back was turned again. InuYasha quickly slipped the lid off the teapot, hooked the limp body of the youkai with a claw and drew it out of the tea. It was quite dead. He flipped it and the tea out the door, then reloaded the teapot before Minoru returned with the jar of salted plums.

Minoru poured tea for them both, saying, "As you can see, I'm doing quite well here. Do you suppose you can tell that fussy great-nephew of mine to stop harassing me? Youkai indeed!"

---------------------

The food for the last couple of weeks hadn't been great, but there had not been any major disasters lately and it was slowly improving. Shortly after the spectacular triple-result rice pot, the jinx that had been haunting the kitchen finally departed and rice cooking had finally been conquered. Breakfast this morning was a simple repackaging of last night's dinner with some extra rice and tea. It was definitely climbing up on the edible scale.

Everyone had a few bites, then Kagome suddenly dropped her bowl and bolted from the house. InuYasha and Shippo could hear her heaving outside. Each of them quickly and thoroughly sniffed over his food.

"It smells fine to me," Shippo declared.

"Me too. You feeling all right?" InuYasha replied.

"Yeah, no problems."

They looked out the door again. Kagome seemed to be through vomiting and was now sitting against a tree, talking to Kaede, who had apparently arrived just as Kagome had bolted out the door. InuYasha leaned out the door and called, "Are you all right?"

Kagome nodded and waved and Kaede said she would be in in a few minutes. InuYasha and Shippo looked at each other and at the food again.

"Play it safe?" asked InuYasha.

"Yeah. Where's the ramen?" replied Shippo, rustling through the box as InuYasha put the kettle back on the fire.

----------

Kagome leaned back against the tree, breathing slowly and gathering herself. She had been feeling off for a couple of weeks, maybe three. She had been attributing it to the excitement of moving and her own admittedly bad cooking. She wished she had a youkai constitution, like her two cohabitants.

Kaede looked her over carefully, peering in her eyes, feeling her brow and around her neck and asking questions:

How long has she felt bad? About three weeks.

What were the symptoms? Tired, dizzy sometimes, stomach was off, though this was the first day she had actually thrown up.

Any fever? No.

Everyone else feeling all right? Yes, but they're youkai, so does that count?

"So, my dear, when was your last monthly?"

"Huh? Oh. Umm, I don't really remember. I lost track while I was setting up the house. But that would mean... Oh! ...OH!"

"Yes, dear, you are probably with child." Kaede patted her hand comfortingly.

"Ohhhh, wow," Kagome said, feeling staggered. "That was fast." She sat a few more minutes as the impact of the revelation settled in.

"I'll come back this afternoon with my business," Kaede said, getting up and heading back to the village.

Kagome rose and walked back to the house. The guys had abandoned breakfast and were eating ramen when she entered.

"The food's OK, guys," she said, looking down at them.

Shippo looked a little guilty and InuYasha waved toward the door. "Then what was that all about?" he demanded.

She crouched down beside him and whispered in his ear, "I'm pregnant."

He choked on his mouthful of noodles and she had to slap his back a couple of times.

"What?!" he finally managed to gasp once the coughing fit had subsided.

"Oh no! What is it?" Shippo demanded, looking alarmed. "Kaede-sama was talking to you for a long time!"

Shippo jumped into her arms and hugged her, crying. "It's bad, isn't it? It's something awful! You're not going to die, are you?"

InuYasha thumped Shippo once on the head, and said with a great deal of exasperation, "Shippo, you idiot, will you get a grip?! She's not going to die!"

"Then, what is it?" Shippo asked, still tearful and a bit resentful of the lump on his head.

"I'm fine," Kagome answered, hugging him then putting him down. "I'm going to have a baby, that's all."

"Oh, is that all?" Shippo said, greatly relieved.

"Whaddya mean, 'Is that all?'" InuYasha retorted. "It seems to me this is kind of big."

"Well, yeah, you're the one who's going to be a papa," Shippo shot back.

InuYasha slammed his fist onto Shippo's head and stalked out the door.

"Oww!" Shippo wailed, "He didn't have to do that!"

Kagome stared after InuYasha, hurt, angry, and a bit alarmed. She decided to soothe Shippo first; InuYasha could just go sulk a while. She fetched a poultice from the shelves and gently dabbed it on Shippo's head.

"So what's up with him?" Shippo asked, looking out the door.

"I don't know," Kagome replied. "I mean, I'm surprised too, but to get so angry... That's kind of scary."

"What did he think was going to happen? You get married and you have a family. It's not awful. It's good to be in a family." Shippo looked wistful, remembering his own lost family.

"I know," Kagome answered, holding him as much for her own comfort as his. "But I'm not sure InuYasha knows. Look what he has left for a family."

They sat a while as Kagome screwed up the nerve to go deal with InuYasha. Finally, she put Shippo down and looked out the door. She eventually spotted InuYasha up a tree, staring into space looking lost and scared. He noticed her watching him, scowled and turned his back to her.

"So that's it," she thought, a surge of sympathy rolling through her, "You're not about to admit it, but you're scared."

She walked out and sat down at the base of the tree and looked up.

"You want to tell me about it?" she asked.

"About what?" he said obtusely.

"About why you're sitting in this tree," she persisted.

Amber eyes peered down at her. "You've never cared why I was in a tree before."

"You're usually just having a temper tantrum," Kagome observed.

"Keh!" He stared stonily through the leaves.

They both sat in silence as Kagome waited for InuYasha to say something.

"Well?" she prompted.

"I'm just having a temper tantrum!" he snapped.

She continued to sit quietly, waiting. Finally he peered down again.

"Don't you have something else to do?" he asked. "Laundry or dishes or something?"

"Are you coming down then?"

Silence. She continued to wait. The morning dragged away. Noon peaked and passed.

About mid afternoon, Kaede trudged up the hill from the village and stopped at the house. Shippo directed her to the tree where Kagome and InuYasha sat. She looked at the tableau a moment, pondering, then joined Kagome at the base of the tree.

"It's a fine day to sit outside in the shade," Kaede observed. It was in fact decidedly brisk, the sort of day where moving was preferable.

"Yes, it is," Kagome agreed.

Kaede looked questioningly at Kagome. Kagome gave the slightest jerk of her head upward at InuYasha. Kaede looked up, taking a moment to observe InuYasha.

"I have always loved the way sunlight shifts through the leaves of trees," Kaede commented.

"I could sit here for hours watching it," Kagome said.

"You have sat there for hours," InuYasha remarked acidly, still staring outward.

Kaede quirked a brow at Kagome. Kagome whispered very quietly to her, "He's scared about the baby, but of course he won't admit it."

Kaede smiled knowingly and squeezed Kagome's hand, murmuring, "I'd be more worried about him if he wasn't."

Kagome appreciated that thought greatly, but it still didn't get InuYasha out of the tree. She sighed, looking up at him, sitting there so alone and miserable.

Kaede glanced up at InuYasha. He gave no indication he was paying any attention to them, but she thought she saw his ears tilting their direction.

"Do you know Saito-san?" she asked Kagome.

Kagome thought a moment, then remembered the jolly man in charge of the fish ponds. He had at least eight children, with one or two of them hanging off him at any one time.

"Oh, yeah, the man at the fish ponds. He is such a great father. He always has those kids hanging on him."

Kaede laughed. "He wasn't always like that," she said. "He was in such a panic when his wife told him she was pregnant the first time. He drove every single man in the village crazy asking them what to do and how to do it. And he was going crazy since everyone had a different answer. I thought he was going to have a heart attack the night his wife delivered and he scarcely looked at the boy for a week and a half he was so afraid he was going to break him."

Kagome giggled. "I can't even picture him like that."

"It's true. You can ask him yourself."

"I think I will."

"You should," Kaede said. "A talk with him always cheers me up. And you know the most interesting thing he told me about those children of his?"

"No, what?"

"He said 'I used to go nuts wondering why I got all those different answers about kids, but now I know. The same answer never works twice. Every one of those kids is different. After you have them fed and clothed, you just have to play it by ear.'"

Kagome stared at her. "You mean you make it up as you go along?"

"That's what he said," Kaede assured her.

"But what if you mess up?

InuYasha shifted a bit above them. The women made sure not to notice him.

"You admit it and move on. Try something different the next time."

"But what about the kid?" Kagome persisted. "Won't he be damaged?" It just sounded so loose ended and risky to make it up as you went.

"Kagome-chan, has your mother ever done anything to you that you felt was unjust or wrong?"

"Umm, yeah."

"And what happened?" Kaede asked.

"Well, I got mad. We'd fight and I'd sulk a bit. Sometimes she apologized and sometimes not."

"So. Your mother made some mistakes," Kaede summarized. "Are you damaged?"

Kagome blinked at her, surprised. "Uh, no."

"Have you ever doubted that your mother loved you?" Kaede continued.

"Well, I may have screamed that at her a couple of times," Kagome admitted ruefully, "but down in my heart I always knew she cared."

"And so it is with most of the families here. Nobody's perfect. You muddle your way through it somehow like everyone else."

"Yeah, I guess." Kagome stared at her hands a few minutes, digesting it.

"Well, I actually did come up here for a reason," Kaede said briskly, climbing to her feet. "There are a few herbs that should still be available that I would like you to keep a watch for. My stores are getting low and fresh herbs are always more effective."

"Oh, of course," Kagome said, also climbing to her feet and stretching. "Which ones?"

"The one I need the most is a small plant that creeps close to the ground. It has leaves in threes and long spikes of seed pods. I need the tubers. It likes to grow in sunny nooks in the rocks..."

"I don't think Kagome should be climbing around in the rocks!" InuYasha said suddenly. He dropped from the tree to land between Kagome and Kaede. Kagome had to hand it to Kaede; she had certainly flushed InuYasha out of the tree much faster than Kagome had thought possible.

"I would not send Kagome to do something she should not," Kaede said blandly.

"I can take Shippo with me to reach the awkward spots," Kagome added.

InuYasha did not look like he thought the two women had the sense of a single bird between them.

"I'm coming along," he said firmly.

"All right," Kagome agreed. She kissed his cheek and added, "Why don't you get us some snacks while Kaede-baa-chan finishes telling me about the other herbs she needs. I'm getting a bit hungry."

Flustered by the kiss, InuYasha obeyed quietly. Kagome watched him disappear into the house, then said, "I'd better not get the hiccups for the next few months. He'll come completely unglued."

Kaede laughed. "Well, my dear," she said, "he certainly won't be the first one I've seen like that."

---------------------

The River Woman smiled with satisfaction. It had been close, but things were progressing well now. She still regretted the hanyou had been unwilling to wed on the new moon; Muchitsujo-rei would not have found them so easily then, but one did not always get what one wanted. There was little to do here for the meantime. She would attend to other projects.

1


	10. Chapter 10 Prejudice, Powers and a Pig

Chapter 10 - Prejudice, Powers, and a Pig

Kagome had been enjoying her visit with her family. She was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a cup of tea and some crackers. Mama was on one side of her fussing about how she was looking peaky, asking pointed questions about what she was eating and trying to remember that sure-fire remedy for morning sickness. Sota was on the others side teasing her about how he was sure the baby was going to come with tickly whiskers and a waggly tail. She hadn't noticed that InuYasha and Grampa had left the kitchen until Mount Fuji erupted in the living room.

"She's my wife, whether you like it or not, and you'd damned well better start getting used to it!"

"So you say! But I never saw any of it! And your kind are notorious for defiling fair maidens and leaving them to deal with the consequences!"

The waves of rage throbbing off of InuYasha were palpable as Kagome sprinted into the living room and, hooking his arm, dragged him quickly out of the house.

"Just let go!" InuYasha snarled, shaking Kagome off as they halted in a corner of the shrine grounds beyond the Sacred Tree. He stood a moment, stiff and shaking, then suddenly spun around and slammed a fist into the rock wall behind him. The concussion shattered the wall in a wide arc; gravel and loose sticks rattled down.

"What the hell are you doing dragging me out like I did something wrong?!" he snapped, still radiating great waves of hurt and outrage.

"I kind of thought Mama might like to keep her house," Kagome observed dryly, looking at the shattered wall. "What happened?"

"Who does that fucking old geezer think he is, talking to me like that?!" InuYasha demanded. Despite what he said, he seemed to have spun down a bit; the angry aura was not blazing as brightly as it had been a moment ago. Kagome risked further enquiry.

"I only caught the very last of it. What got it started?" she asked.

InuYasha took a few deep breaths, willing himself back under some degree of control. Kagome slipped an arm around his waist and he snatched her in close, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent. She felt the hammering of his heart slow and calm as he held her. When he spoke again, the rage was gone, but hurt and disgust still saturated his voice.

"You had just told everyone we were expecting and he said to me, 'Didn't waste any time, did you?' I went into the living room and asked him what the hell he meant by that and he went off asking me if I was planning to stick around for more than a week now that I had you knocked up."

Oh dear God. Nothing could have pierced deeper into InuYasha's heart that that.

"He has no idea. He doesn't know how you grew up. He only knows all those hoary old legends he's been telling all these years," Kagome murmured, sick at heart and hoping she was right.

"Yeah, well, maybe he should try being in one of those old legends. Nothing like a bit of sucky reality to get the story straight. I know every fucking detail of what happens when 'the fair maiden is stuck with the consequences'."

Kagome had never heard him sound so bitter. She had had some experience with the great echoing hole in InuYasha's soul where his father was concerned. That void was filled with questions that had scant few answers to match them. But he had never opened up about his childhood. While she knew he had adored his mother, she did not know what had become of her.

InuYasha pulled Kagome in closer, whispering in her ear, "I promise you, I will be there. No matter what, until the end, I will be there."

"I never thought otherwise," she assured him, pulling back to look in his eyes as she ran a hand through his hair. "Can you find it in you to forgive a foolish old man who is only worried about his granddaughter?"

InuYasha growled under his breath, looking resentful.

"I don't blame you for feeling that way," Kagome told him. "I'm going to talk to Grampa before we leave." There was a steely grimness in her voice that spoke volumes of what she intended to say.

Kagome marched back to the house, but InuYasha was not interested in following her. She could deal with the old man herself. The only reason he hadn't returned home already was that he felt he ought to be watching over Kagome.

He loitered beneath the Sacred Tree in the early winter chill, his breath puffing from him in misty clouds as he waited. Mama and Sota each came out separately with a warm drink and a profound apology, while in the background, some snatches of the bitter heated words between Kagome and Grampa escaped the house.

In the end, she prevailed upon the old man to apologize to InuYasha, which he did very stiffly and just within the dictates of correct form. InuYasha coldly accepted the apology, bowing just as stiffly and allowing a truce, for Kagome's sake.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei glared balefully at the new anchor piece. It was situated in an active portion of the flow, breaking the force of a vital current. The piece was still new and not well-rooted. Perhaps it could be dislodged. He slipped into the stream for a closer look.

Once he was in close, he forgot completely about the roots. A much more ominous development was evident; the piece was growing and the stirrings of something new flashed and flared from its depths. His opponents were wasting no time and neither could he if he wanted to nip this threat in the bud.

He followed the spiritual line that attached the piece to the world below and found the earthly creatures that animated it.

The human woman and the hanyou man lay curled together, sleeping, in a small manor. Looking with his god's sight, Muchitsujo-rei could see the stirrings of a new life within the woman, a life that combined the uncanny with the sacred. He could not determine what his opponents were plotting, but it was clear that these were major players.

Muchitsujo-rei reached out to the woman, but was unable to find any hold in her essential serenity. For all that she had seen and done a fair number of things, she was remarkably unscarred. The hanyou, on the other hand, was a seething mass of tortured memories. Many old scars throbbed painfully, terrors writhed through the scars; it was a wonder he was sane. A strong stubborn core held it all together. The man simply refused to let the bastards win. This was a fertile ground from which Muchitsujo-rei could choose his move.

He slid through the hanyou's memories, looking for a weapon. Past the death of his former lover, over his sealing, around the death of his mother... Ah, there, this looked interesting.

_The boy was about ten. He had been alone in the forest for a bit over three years and had learned the basic rules, mostly the hard way. The first rule of the forest: never show your fear. It drew things, horrible things that fed on the fear, then on what was left. The second rule of the forest: never let your guard down. If you must sleep, sleep in a place where you know what's coming before it can get you. The third rule of the forest: strike first, look later. It had already saved his life several times._

_He was badly battered and needed a place to rest and heal. A broken right leg and left arm and hand prevented him from jumping into a tree, his preferred resting place. He was going to be stuck on the ground tonight. Deep gouges in his legs and back continued to bleed, they would draw predators before long._

_He considered seeking refuge in a village, but the charity shown him the last time he had tried had been a barrage of rocks. Looking at the options around him in the open forest, he decided to try a nearby village anyway. He'd just slip in after dark and hide in a barn._

_With the use of a stick and a lot of stubborn determination, he dragged himself to the edge of the forest and watched from behind a tree until sunset. Then he quickly slipped in, stole a few eggs from a chicken coop and hid in the corner of a barn on the far side of the village._

_He hadn't meant to sleep, but it was too late now. He jolted awake from under the spell as something slithered across his face and around his arm. Third rule: strike first. His good arm flashed out, claws extended._

"**SIT!**"

Kagome was rolling away from him in alarm as his left hand did battle with his right. Both of their rings were glowing brightly, making an eerie jumbled scene of brightness and stark shadows that writhed about as he fought to control conflicting instincts.

The rosary pinned him to the futon as he woke up the rest of the way, panting with horror and exertion. The light faded from the ring on his left hand as the need to strike vanished from his right and he regained control of himself.

Kagome stared at him with wide frightened eyes from the other side of the room. "What was that all about!?" she asked wildly.

"Something in a dream kicked off a bad memory," he said, shuddering with the horror of what he had nearly done. "A time when I was nearly killed."

Kagome blinked and looked in the darkness around them.

"Something's in here," she said. "I can feel it."

InuYasha got up and started inspecting the room, all senses extending, questing.

Muchitsujo-rei departed, fading out before he could be tracked. Stupid of him to let that flare of temper get away. The woman was far too sensitive for him to be careless around her.

Damn it! Whoever had forged that piece had been thorough. He really hadn't considered the significance of that ring of metal around it before. He wasn't going to be able to thwart this plot in one move.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei studied the game field for a time, resting on a peak overlooking the land represented on the portion of the field he was examining. One of his pet roving pieces had spun out of control after bouncing off the piece representing his opponent's hanyou. It had wandered into territory that threatened to crumble it before long. Muchitsujo-rei nudged it, sending it on a different trajectory.

--------------------

Pickings had been very poor over the winter, and Kiba-maru and his band were lean and hungry as winter gave way to spring. Nothing had gone well since the thrashing he had taken at InuYasha's village. He had drifted west after that encounter into land controlled by the Ikko Ikki and found that the villages there were not the cowed villages of the daimyo but instead armed and militant villages well able to take care of themselves.

Worse than that, his leadership was being challenged. His men were requiring results and soon. It would not be long before the seed rice, which was all that was realistically obtainable at this time of year, was planted in the fields and once more unavailable. Kiba-maru did not have the resources to take on a castle or one of the fortified temples of the Ikko Ikki, which is where the great warehouses of the land were situated. He needed to tackle a fat village, and his mind kept drifting back to InuYasha's village. If he could subjugate InuYasha, the failures of the winter would be nullified.

The only thing extraordinary about that village was InuYasha himself. If Kiba-maru could leash InuYasha, the rest should be easy. If he could get that little miko InuYasha fancied, that should give him the hold he needed. This time, though, he was not going to blunder into an unknown situation. This time, he was going to case it out carefully.

--------------------

The battered samurai came down from the hills as the sun was setting and made his way to the shrine. He made an offering of his spurs to the kami, then meditated for a time before the altar.

Kaede went to check on him after a respectful amount of time, offering him lodging for the night and asking his tale.

He said his name was Yada Shigeru, a survivor of the losing side of a battle that had taken place over the hills to the north. His clan had been dispersed and he had been on the run for five days. He asked for asylum for a short measure of days to rest and re-equip himself, then he would go out to find the rest of his clan.

He hungrily ate the simple fare Kaede provided and gratefully wrapped himself in her spare bedding. He slept fitfully that night, starting awake at many noises, and roused at dawn when Kaede began her day. Despite her protests that he need not stir himself, he got up and restlessly prowled the village, watching the hills around it for any signs of activity.

Some time later, he approached her in her herb patch and pointed to InuYasha's modest manor house up on the hill. "Who lives up there, Kaede-sama? Your daimyo?"

"No, no, only InuYasha and his wife. InuYasha protects the village for his keep." Kaede replied.

"So, he is a contract samurai. Surely I should have been presented to him when I arrived." Yada Shigeru looked disturbed that he had been prevented from access to a fellow samurai.

"You may find him uncomfortable company," Kaede warned him. "InuYasha is a hanyou. I thought you would be more at ease with me. Your pardon if I erred." She bowed her apology to the samurai.

"Hanyou!" Shigeru exclaimed. "How does a hanyou come to guard a village?"

"It is mutually beneficial." Kaede answered.

"Huh! What is the cost of a hanyou? What has he required of you for his 'protection'?" Yada Shigeru looked scandalized that a miko would even consider such a thing for her village.

Kaede shook her head. "What he wants is little enough. Those things that you and I take for granted can have great value to such as him."

The samurai looked dubious. "The price of the youkai may seem small, until you find you have sacrificed your soul. It is not safe to deal with the uncanny."

"This can be true," Kaede sighed, "but InuYasha seeks only a place where he can keep his wife. As long as they can live peacefully here, he will protect us."

"I hope for your sake that is all there is to it," Shigeru observed. "But it really is none of my affair. Who would you suggest I talk to about a horse?"

Yada Shigeru was in the town square haggling with Shizuyo, the spice dealer, over Shizuyo's rangy roan horse when InuYasha arrived escorting Kagome through her shopping rounds before he dropped her off with Kaede for her morning folk medicine lessons.

Shigeru stopped haggling long enough to look InuYasha over carefully before bowing to a fellow warrior. InuYasha returned the favor, studying Shigeru with suspiciously narrowed eyes.

"I'm in the market for a horse," Shigeru explained, "Would you know if this is the best one available? He seems a bit light to me."

"I really wouldn't know," InuYasha responded. "I find I'm faster on foot. We only have farm or merchant's horses here, though. Who are you? Where are you from?"

Shigeru bowed again, saying "I am Yada Shigeru. My clan lost a battle to the north and we were scattered. I lost my horse and my companions and have been hiding from our enemies for many days. I came here the refit myself, so I can go find my clan again."

InuYasha looked to the hills sharply, scanning the countryside for movement or other signs of pursuers. "What kind of pursuit do you have?"

Shigeru shook his head wearily. "I think I lost them two days ago. That was when I decided I could risk coming down."

"How long are you planning to stay?" InuYasha continued. He still did not look comfortable with the visitor.

"Perhaps another day," Shigeru responded. "After I've had another good night's sleep."

"I will check the trail for you to the border of our land," InuYasha offered.

"A most gracious offer," Shigeru said, bowing as InuYasha and Kagome continued on their way. He watched them for a while, considering.

--------------------

Kiba-maru and his lieutenants clustered around a sketch of the village scratched in the dirt.

"The access points are here, here and here. The watch tower can see all this to here." Yada Shigeru drew a perimeter in his map around the tower. "According to the villagers, InuYasha's sword is most effective fighting youkai. InuYasha himself is very strong and tough; he can take quite a beating and still survive. He told me himself he can outrun a horse. He's married now and the woman is pregnant. The trick is going to be separating them long enough to snatch her; he's sticking to her side like a burr."

"Is it that little miko?" Kiba-maru asked.

"I don't know, I never saw the mikos last time." Shigeru responded. "She's little, pretty, wears strange clothing. In any case, if she's pregnant, she's not a miko any more, is she?"

Kiba-maru gloated in anticipation; no, she was not a miko any more.

--------------------

Faint screams from the farthest fields, followed by shouts from the watch tower alerted InuYasha to trouble. He sprinted out of the house to the top of the stairs to look out over the village, Kagome and Shippo on his heels. Down on the flats by the river, where the women were planting young rice in the flooded paddies, there was a loud commotion; women were scattering in all directions, running from a band of horsemen on the dykes that contained the paddies. The horsemen had managed to capture five of the women and now they were fleeing with their prizes.

Several of the village men had gathered farm implements and their own horses and were starting the pursuit, while a few fleet boys bolted across the village to fetch InuYasha.

"Trouble, Kagome," InuYasha said, settling his sword in his sash. "You and Shippo stay with Kaede at the shrine. Wait for me there. They may need help binding wounds when this is over."

Kagome nodded and turned to gather her med kit before heading to the shrine. InuYasha bounded down the stairs and across the village lands to catch up with the pursuers.

Kagome and Shippo trotted down the stairs to the village then turned up the lane that led to the shrine. As she passed a cluster of huts near the shrine, a group of brigands burst out of one of them and snatched her. She was hauled into the hut, kicking and thrashing and securely bound. Shippo was subdued with a blow to the head. The brigands then threw Kagome onto a horse in front of its rider who held a knife to her throat then galloped off into the hills.

A messenger stayed behind with Shippo held hostage to deal with InuYasha when he returned.

The decoys did their job well; it was two days before InuYasha and the farmers returned from rounding up the women. A silent, tense village greeted them as they returned. Fathers and husbands quickly took back their women, then directed InuYasha to the shrine, where the messenger held court.

Ears back, temper barely in check, InuYasha snarled, "If she is harmed in any way,..." as he advanced into the shrine.

"Nothing has happened to her," the messenger responded. "Yet," he added significantly. "How long that holds depends on you."

"No more talking until I see her," InuYasha said fiercely, eyes locked on the brigand.

"I'm sorry, but that won't be possible," the brigand replied, returning InuYasha's gaze coolly. "Your reputation is such that she will remain hidden until our deal is concluded. In the meantime, let us amuse ourselves with this." He pulled Shippo, bound and senseless, from a sack at his feet and held him up. Ofuda wound into his bindings rendered him helpless.

InuYasha sucking in a hissing breath as the brigand dangled Shippo by the tail.

"A fox kit from the looks of things," the brigand said. "He's been quite the little handful. I'm afraid we had to get a bit rough. I'll trade you the kit for your sword."

"In your dreams!" InuYasha snarled, leaping at the brigand, who threw Shippo into his face; the ofuda binding Shippo dropped InuYasha as they made contact.

"That was the general idea," the brigand murmured as he slipped the sword out of InuYasha's hand.

--------------------

Kagome was dragged from the back of the cave, where she had waited in total darkness on a rough mat with only a light blanket to warm her, to the central cavity near a large fire. The pig-man was waiting for her.

Kiba-maru chuckled viciously, balancing the sheathed Tetsusaiga in his hand before Kagome. "Well my beauty, I don't think I have to worry about your puppy any more. A little runt like him isn't much without the sword, is he?"

He grabbed Kagome's neck and forced a kiss on her mouth. Kagome shoved back, jerking her face to the side and spitting.

Kiba-maru stroked her cheek and said, "You'd better start playing nice. Your little doggie isn't going to save you and we both know he solved that little problem of your miko powers."

"If anything happens to me, InuYasha will have your head," Kagome hissed defiantly.

"He'll have a hard time doing it. He'll have to come through the youki of his own sword," Kiba-maru said, drawing it. The sword's barrier flared, forcing Kiba-maru to drop it.

"You can't use it," Kagome said. "Tetsusaiga will never serve you."

"We'll just see about that. If that hanyou pup can use it, so can I."

"You'd better figure it out before he gets here," Kagome said. "Your life depends on it."

"He just got lucky last time, "Kiba-maru sneered, but he was starting to look worried that he did not have full control of the situation once again.

"Take her away," he snapped at the nearby guard. He didn't want her witnessing his struggle with the sword until he had it mastered.

--------------------

InuYasha came to with a gentle finger laid across his lips and two solemn black eyes staring into his. He nodded understanding as the girl silently stripped off the ofuda and cut his bonds. He sat up, rotating his wrists and ankles and stretching carefully to restore circulation to his limbs as she repeated the operation on Shippo.

The girl was Sumire, Saito-san's fifth born. At about ten years old, she had never struck InuYasha as being particularly bold. In fact, she had never struck him as being particularly anything. She had always been just a bit of the background. He twitched an ear, thinking. Perhaps that was what she was good at, being unnoticed. There was definite value in the talent.

Sumire slid into the doorway, positioned herself carefully and quickly waved a signal cloth to unseen watchers outside, then gestured for InuYasha and Shippo to come closer.

Outside, in the square, three of Sumire's more boisterous brothers staged a noisy squabble, the bigger two boys dangling their little brother's pet snake over his head as he yowled and jumped. The brigands guarding the hut nudged each other, pointing and laughing at the spectacle.

Sumire led InuYasha and Shippo quickly out of the hut, then they vanished into the undergrowth and hastened to the forest. Saito-san met them there and quickly passed on all the villagers knew of the brigands and their plans. He led them to the trail the messenger had taken when he left with the Tetsusaiga, then returned to the village to continue the resistance campaign.

InuYasha sniffed the area over carefully. Yes, there was the messenger's trail. He and Shippo plunged into the forest, then up into the hills.

--------------------

Kiba-maru's men could handle the Tetsusaiga, but it remained nothing but a battered old relic on its last legs in their grasp. Any time Kiba-maru approached it, however, the protective barrier flared to life, burning his hand and forcing the hilt from his grasp. Even a cloth over his hand failed to shield him from its aura. Frustrated, he had Kagome dragged before him again.

"Tell me what you know about the sword," he demanded. "And don't give me any crap, or you'll feel it."

"You don't have what it takes to use the sword," she answered. "It weighs your heart and rejects you if it finds you lacking."

"Lacking!" he roared. "I lack nothing!"

"The sword decided otherwise," Kagome retorted coldly.

"So what does it want?" Kiba-maru sneered. "I'm big. I'm strong. I lead many men. I can take it to the top of the world."

She looked at him with pity (pity?) for his lack of understanding. "It looks for a kind heart," she replied, knowing he would never be able to muster it.

He stared at her, dumbfounded, then laughed. "A kind heart." The he roared, "What kind of sword wants a kind heart!?"

"It was forged to defend the weak from powerful bullies," Kagome stated quietly. "You cannot use it."

--------------------

Pig. There was no mistaking that pungent odor. So the damned pig-man had come back for another round, had he? InuYasha and Shippo lay on the top of a cliff looking down a narrow ravine. Three quarters of the way down they could see guards in front of a narrow cleft in the opposing cliff. Horses were tied farther down the ravine under some trees. So, he was holed up in that cave, was he?

How to get in? They needed a diversion, something innocuous that wouldn't raise an alarm.

"Shippo," InuYasha whispered, "I want you to go down and untie the horses. Get them moving around, but don't spook them. Let's see if we can get the guards away from the cave. Stay hidden!"

Shippo nodded and started working his way down the cliff. InuYasha watched him for a moment, then ran upstream, vaulted the ravine at a narrow point and started down toward the cave, also taking care to stay out of sight.

It worked like a charm. The brigands were all convinced they had not been found out; they only thought the horses had slipped their traces and had no worries about leaving their post for a few minutes to catch and retie them. By then, InuYasha was in the cave.

He hugged the cave wall, moving from hollow to bend, dispatching two men he encountered on the way with sharp blows to the head.

A fire and some lamps lit a wide spot in the interior. Several of the brigands were clustered around the fire roasting some meat and watching a pot of rice steam.

On the other side of the fire, the pig-man was confronting Kagome, apparently trying to force her to tell him how the Tetsusaiga worked. InuYasha arrived just in time to see him slap her sharply across the face.

"You're lying! Now tell me the truth!"

An angry growl burst unbidden from InuYasha's throat. No one treated his wife like that.

Kiba-maru heard the growl and jumped for the sword, then dropped it quickly as it once more seared his hand.

"We have company!" he shouted, grabbing Kagome in the sword's place. "The dog is here! Show yourself if you don't want anything to happen to your woman!" By now, he had a knife drawn and held to her throat.

InuYasha launched himself over the fire and its ring of scrambling men to land in front of Kiba-maru and his wife. Kiba-maru backed up two steps, out of range of InuYasha's claws, kicking the sword along with him.

"Heh! I may let her go if you tell me how to use the sword. A simple enough exchange. If you don't, well, hmmm," the knife drifted from Kagome's throat to her belly, "I'll make my first cut here."

It happened in a flash; Kagome transformed from a threatened woman to an enraged mother protecting her child. She grabbed Kiba-maru's wrist and instinctively summoning all her spiritual powers, she blasted him with an immense surge. The only thing that prevented him from blowing to pieces was his human heritage. As it was, Kiba-maru was slammed hard against the cave wall thirty feet back, where he slumped in a heap.

The flaring of her blast had blinded everyone for a moment. InuYasha, with his slit pupilled eyes, recovered first. He snatched up his sword, got Kagome onto his back and, dodging through the blundering brigands, fought his way out of the cave.

A couple of quick slashes dealt with the guards at the mouth, then he bolted a safe distance from the cave to meet with Shippo.

"Let's blow this joint," he said, spinning around, then blasting a wind-scar at the cave mouth. The cliff face collapsed before them as Shippo transformed into his flying pink ball and carried them up to the top of the cliff face beyond the range of archers.

The sight of an angry InuYasha striding into the village with his lady at his side and his sword in his hand was sufficient incentive to send the rest of the brigands packing.

--------------------/p>

InuYasha lay curled protectively beside Kagome with an arm around her as she slept. He could feel the baby pushing back against the weight of his hand and shifting around inside her to get a better angle.

It was the night of the new moon and he was alone with his thoughts skittering around in his mind like frightened mice. Normally, Kagome sat up with him through his spell of mortality, but tonight she was understandably exhausted and had collapsed against his shoulder before midnight.

He had carried her to bed, and unable to bear any separation between them, had joined her there. But he wouldn't sleep.

That had been far too close. This child wasn't even born yet and he had nearly lost it all. A sick panicky feeling surged up in his belly. How was he going to keep all of them safe?


	11. Chapter 11 Their Firstborn Child

Chapter 11 - Their Firstborn Child

Kagome looked up from the kitchen table and covertly watched InuYasha for a moment before resuming slicing a melon for breakfast. He wasn't making a show of it, but one ear was always pointed at her, monitoring. She sighed and grimaced, wondering how she could possibly ditch him for the afternoon.

He had done nothing but get more and more protective as her pregnancy advanced. Now that she had less than a month to go, he was a veritable limpet sucked tight to her side. She appreciated the sentiment, but still...

The problem was that Mama, in the manner of mothers everywhere, was very excited and anxious as her first grandchild's appearance came near, and in the manner of mothers everywhere, was determined to make sure Kagome was equipped for the baby to her (Mama's) satisfaction. She had arranged a baby shower.

Kagome had heard about it about two weeks ago when Mama had pressed her for what she had already equipped herself with. Kagome had consulted the village women earlier and had easily enough procured what they customarily used. Of course, times had changed, and Mama had not thought that at all suitable. In short order, she had all the female relatives (such as they were) rallied and the shower arranged. Kagome was sure she could smile and get through this except for one thing, InuYasha. She was not at all sure how he was going to mix with all those prodding aunts and great aunts.

Mama's sister, Aunt Aiko and her grandfather's sister, Great Aunt Noriko, would probably be all right. But there was Mama's Aunt Sakura... Every family function required Great Aunt Sakura, you didn't dare leave her out. She was the undisputed family matriarch, a forceful, outspoken maiden aunt who was now a Buddhist nun. She was already out of sorts over not having been consulted when Kagome married InuYasha. Kagome could not even imagine what her pungent comments would do when mixed with InuYasha's prickly temper.

Firmly squashing the butterflies in her stomach, Kagome decided to try once more to talk InuYasha into staying home this afternoon. She placed rice, custard and melon out for the three of them, then brought over the tea kettle. Shippo had already dug in hungrily as she and InuYasha settled themselves.

"You know, Mama's party is going to be a crashing bore for a guy. You'd be much happier finding something else to do," Kagome started.

InuYasha's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Kagome could see his stubborn streak rearing up.

"There's no way I could get into any trouble," she continued. "I'll just be at Mama's house in the modern era. What could go wrong?"

InuYasha stared at her for a moment, then sniffed the air quickly. A set look came into his eyes. "No," he said decidedly. "Something about this afternoon has you very tense."

Kagome resisted the urge to bang her head on the table and scream, "It's you, idiot!" She'd just end up stuck with a sulky limpet.

"Are you sure you want to sit through all of my aunties poking and prodding at you?" Kagome held her breath, hoping...

"I'm not leaving you alone and that's all there is to it." The gaze he laid on her was absolutely implacable.

"Oh, great," Kagome thought. "I'm going to be lucky to get through this without inducing premature labor."

They arrived at Mama's house early, ostensibly so Kagome could help Mama with the last details of setting up the party, but really so she could make some final attempt to stash InuYasha someplace inconspicuous.

Sota, bless him, caught on to the situation immediately. He, too, had had plenty of experience with both InuYasha and Great Aunt Sakura.

"Hey, why don't you come upstairs to my room?" he invited InuYasha. "We'll break out some tunes and video games, grab some chips and soda, and just chill while the aunties are here."

InuYasha looked uncertain; Kagome would be out of his sight.

Sota continued his pitch. "I'll leave the door open. You can hear everything, though why you'd want to...," he added, rolling his eyes.

InuYasha relented and went upstairs. Kagome started breathing again. She made sure to make enough noise that InuYasha would not be tempted to come back down. A few minutes later, she heard music and the beeps and boops of a video game firing up. Sota was good at the games and InuYasha's competitive nature would kick in soon. Maybe this would work after all.

About half an hour later, the aunties arrived. Aunt Aiko and Great Aunt Noriko greeted Mama and Kagome graciously, smiling and making diffident small talk. Great Aunt Sakura strode in and looked about keenly.

"Good afternoon Makiko, Kagome," she said. "How nice to see you after all this time." She looked significantly at Kagome's bulging belly, making Kagome wince. "Hmph. Scared off the menfolk again, have I? Where's Hikaru?"

"Grampa's out in the shrine performing a purification rite on a new artifact," Sota said, poking his head down the stairwell briefly. "Good afternoon, Aunt Sakura."

"Hiding, is he?" she snorted back. "It's good to see you, at least, have gotten some guts. Are you coming down?"

"Just for a moment," Sota replied. "This is way too girly for me."

He trotted down the stairs long enough to dutifully greet his relations, then be excused. As he escaped back into his room with a new bag of chips in hand and the sounds of the video game picked up once more, Great Aunt Sakura rounded on Kagome and asked, "So, just where is this young whippersnapper of yours?"

Kagome managed an answer that suggested he had dropped her off but he was not immediately available. Great Aunt Sakura looked somewhat miffed at being stymied again, but allowed Mama to get the party going without too much comment. She looked like she was settling herself in for a siege, though. Apparently she planned to wait here until this mysterious young man appeared to take Kagome home. One way or another, she was going to see him.

Kagome and Mama had carefully arranged the seating so that all the guests' seats faced away from the stairwell. The lighting was better that way, so all could see the gifts at their best advantage.

Family gossip swirled about as the party progressed, punctuated by Great Aunt Sakura's comments. The old lady was in rare form. Kagome studied her again, wondering how anyone like her had ever gotten a delicate name like "Cherry Blossom". She had never seen anything so incongruous. If her parents had been hoping to soften her character in this way, it had failed miserably.

Great Aunt Sakura was expounding on the actions of one of Kagome's second cousins when InuYasha appeared, stripped down to shirt and pants in the sultry late June heat, and padded silently down the stairs. A thrill of alarm ran through Kagome, but no one noticed as he turned the corner and disappeared into the bathroom. OK, that should be all right. She breathed again, returning to the conversation of the party, though she kept a weather eye on the bathroom and stairs. The sooner he was back upstairs with Sota, the better.

Two minutes later, the tranquility of the party was shattered by a loud, "AAUGH! What the fuck?!" reverberating from the bathroom. An alarming amount of banging and crashing followed the yelp.

Kagome looked wildly at Mama, who had a stricken look on her face. "Oh dear, I forgot to tell him," Mama said, her hands over her mouth.

"Don't break anything!" Kagome yelled desperately at the bathroom, then turned to her mother. "Forgot to tell him what?" she asked urgently.

"I had a washlet installed since you visited last," Mama said.

"Oh, no." Kagome scrambled to her feet and ran to the bathroom followed by everyone else as InuYasha burst out of the room, wild-eyed, ears back, one hand holding his pants just barely high enough to provide coverage.

"That thing just shot water up my ass!" he howled, deeply aggrieved.

"It's called a washlet. Mama just had it installed," Kagome explained soothingly.

"Don't you think you might have warned me?" he demanded.

"I just this second found out myself," Kagome replied.

InuYasha pointed wildly at the washlet, which looked battered, but still intact. "What kind of lunatic thought it was a good idea to shoot water up your butt!?" He didn't seem to have noticed he had dropped his pants entirely.

Kagome, however, had noticed, and had also noticed, with growing embarrassment, that the aunties were now inspecting InuYasha's assets with a great deal of appreciation.

"InuYasha!" she hissed. "Your pants!"

Flushing, he snatched them up and, with the meager shreds of dignity still left to him, tied them shut and returned upstairs. A few grumbles about the lunacy of modern times and just what was wrong with trees anyway followed him.

Stunned, the aunties watched him disappear.

"My," said Aunt Aiko.

"So that's your young man," said Great Aunt Noriko. "A bit excitable, isn't he?"

"I can see why you're working so hard to keep him hidden," said Great Aunt Sakura. "He's quite the looker, isn't he?"

Kagome blinked and looked at her great aunt in amazement. "What?"

"Well equipped, too," the old lady continued with approval. "There weren't any young men like that in my day. If there were, I might have gotten married. And had ten children to boot!"

Kagome hid her face in her hands, blushing ferociously.

Great Aunt Sakura was in a jovial mood for the rest of the party. Kagome wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. InuYasha had obviously made the old dragon's day. The question that nagged Kagome was how far the story was going to travel. She wasn't going to be able to face the family for years.

--------------------

Kagome had a burst of restless energy a couple of days before the Obon festival, just as all the other village women did their summer house cleaning. She bullied InuYasha and Shippo through a major cleaning of her own house, upending the furniture, scrubbing the shelves and cleaning the linens. InuYasha put his foot down as she started on the floors, demanding, "Just what the Hell do you think you're doing?" as he hauled her back to her feet and removed the brush from her hand.

"It's Obon!" she said, as if that explained everything.

"So? Just who are you expecting, anyway? Your dead haven't even been born yet!"

"Well, there's Shippo's parents, and yours," she replied.

"And they're really going to run the anti-demon gauntlet to come here. This festival is for humans, no demons allowed. Remember?" InuYasha snorted.

Tears started welling in her eyes. She had been getting emotional again lately and just about anything made her cry.

"I... I just thought... it might be nice for Shippo if... if someone helped him remember his parents," she sniffed.

"Ah jeez." It made absolutely no sense, but she was making him feel guilty again. But somehow he had to rein her in. "Look, if you promise me you will take it easy, Shippo and I will do the stupid floor. But if I catch you starting anything else big, the deal is off."

She swallowed her tears and nodded, then busied herself with setting up the lanterns for the night. He did the floors, then spent the remainder of the day in a silent battle with her, taking tools from her hands any time she started something he disapproved of. She continued to drift restlessly from place to place, looking for chores.

She finally gave up at her house and went to the shrine, where InuYasha caught her helping Kaede clean Kikyo's grave. He stood watching her for a while then started helping. Perhaps he had some dead of his own after all. He vanished completely after dinner, returning a couple of hours later, quiet and thoughtful.

At sunset, they lit the lanterns and spent some time watching the village from the stairs, then retired as a rain shower drifted over.

Kagome was unable to settle that night and some time later was pacing and rubbing her belly.

"What's the matter?" InuYasha asked, watching her.

"It hurts," she replied.

"I told you not to overdo it," he scolded her mildly.

She paced some more, then gasped as a lot of water suddenly ran down her legs. "I think the baby's coming soon," she said. "Get Kaede."

Rattled, InuYasha bolted to the village and tracked down Kaede. She gathered her birthing kit and accompanied InuYasha to their house, then firmly escorted InuYasha and Shippo out the door as this was a woman's place only.

InuYasha was willing to go along with this until Kagome cried out in pain and he smelled her blood. All of his over-sensitized protective instincts fired and he charged toward the house, only to bounce back off a barrier as he tried to enter the door.

"Hey, old crone! What the Hell is going on in there?! If anything happens to Kagome or the baby, so help me, I'm..."

Kaede looked out the door at yet another terrified young man experiencing his first birthing. She slipped outside briefly and said, "We have a perfectly normal birth in progress. Kagome is doing fine."

InuYasha wasn't buying it. "I smell blood, old woman," he said ominously.

"Yes, you do. And yes, she is in pain. Birthings are a painful, bloody time and there is not much you or I can do about that. First births can take many hours, so you just go settle down and wait. I'll let you know as soon as anything happens." Kaede knew better than to try to downplay anything with InuYasha; his senses were too acute.

Kagome gasped again inside and InuYasha pushed past Kaede to try to enter the house again, only to be once more repulsed by the barrier.

"What's the big idea with that fucking barrier?! That's my wife in there," he snarled.

Kaede laid a comforting hand on his arm and said quietly, "It has nothing to do with you. As I said, birthings are painful bloody things. Sometimes, it attracts those demons who feed on pain and blood. The barrier keeps them out. Now, you must excuse me; I have work to do." With that, she disappeared into the house.

Kaede may have meant well with that last explanation, but it only served to spook InuYasha more. He stood outside the door, trembling, and stared through the branches of the forest trees, looking for signs of the phantoms that get drawn to blood, pain and fear. He had met that nasty sort far too many times before.

The sounds of the start of the Obon festival drifted up to him from the village below, as the villagers sang and danced their slow rhythmic welcome to their dead around a bonfire in the square. Red lanterns glowed on all of the houses down below and from the eaves of his own house. InuYasha could sense the soft laughing passage of spirits wafting through, excited and eager to see their families again.

InuYasha couldn't remember ever feeling so alone. His dead were far gone; he didn't remember his father at all and his mother had faded to a few vague memories. The woman who was the center of his life was closeted away, working her way through a painful private struggle that he could have no part of. He was floating again, unconnected to the world, his past and present lost to him and his future a dark unseen cloud.

All he could do was wait; waiting was not something he had ever done well. He sat down on the porch right next to the door, which was as close as he could get to Kagome, eyes looking out toward the forest for any hint of hungry demons, ears turned back toward the house, listening with raw throbbing nerves to his wife's progress. As he sat, the rain clouds cleared, leaving a night bright with stars and a newly risen moon.

Shippo joined him after a time. InuYasha wasn't sure he wanted him there. Shippo had an uncanny genius for saying the exact thing that would push him over the edge in situations like this.

"How's it going?" Shippo asked after they had sat for a while.

"The old woman says it's going fine," InuYasha said stonily. He was having a hard time keeping a grip on his nerves through the slowly building pace and intensity of Kagome's labor. They heard Kagome gasp and groan through another powerful contraction then Kaede's murmuring encouragement.

"Are you sure?" Shippo asked. "That sounded horrible. How could that be normal?"

"Shippo. Shut. Up," InuYasha said tightly as his nerves bolted and thrashed at the end of their leash.

Kagome's next contraction came hard on the heels of the last one. She rode it out and started crying as it faded away. The next one came, even harder than the last.

"It sounds like she's dying," Shippo said, staring at the doorway with huge scared eyes.

InuYasha slammed his fist down on Shippo's head, snarling, "I said 'Shut up!'."

"Oh, God, it hurts," Kagome gasped, weeping as the next contraction tailed off.

"You're almost done," Kaede said softly. "Just a few more pushes and it's all over. Come on. Big breath and push."

They could hear Kagome's focus sharpen into fierce determination as she worked through the next contraction.

"That's it. Here it comes. Give me another good push."

Kagome panted and sucked in another hard breath, then groaned again.

Nerves stretched to the snapping point, InuYasha sprang up and paced feverishly in an ever-widening circle. He found himself under the relatively cool threshold of the forest trees, looking back at his house, with its red lanterns glowing and the soft light of a lamp showing through the doorway. He couldn't hear as much here, and his nerves settled somewhat. He wavered anxiously between staying there in the calm of the trees or hurrying back to the doorway to find out what was happening.

"We-e-eh!" It was a lusty yell, full of outraged fury. InuYasha stood frozen under the tree, listening intently as his firstborn made its entry into the world.

The baby was still crying when Kaede came from the house a few minutes later carrying a small bundle wrapped in cloth. She looked around briefly, then catching sight of him, walked over to greet him.

"Would you like to meet your son?" she asked. "You have a fine healthy boy."

"Kagome?" he asked anxiously.

"She's resting. You can come see her in a while," Kaede replied.

Kaede had InuYasha sit down, then placed the infant in his lap, showing him how to hold him, then told him, "I have to help Kagome get settled. I'll call when she's ready to see you." With that, Kaede left him alone under the trees with his new son yelling in his arms in the bright moonlight.

InuYasha carefully unwrapped the cloths around the baby. The baby yelled once more, flinging his arms wide, then stopped suddenly with a comical startled expression at the sudden lack of restriction. InuYasha looked him over, carefully memorizing his looks, his sounds, his scent. His son was a perfect meld of himself and Kagome; he had a fuzzy thatch of black hair with tiny dog ears peeking through, his little fingers had fledgling claws, he had his mother's eyes and nose, InuYasha's mouth and chin.

Now that he had stopped screaming, the baby was looking around with interest, although his eyes tended to unfocus and wander.

So tiny, so helpless. And it was his job to keep this little mite safe until he was big enough to do it himself, to teach him how to do it. That sick, panicky feeling came back; he had no idea how to do this father thing.

'Hey, kid," he said, "I've got news for you. I don't know the first thing about being a dad. I never even met my old man. But I'll promise you this; no matter how bad I mess up, I'll always be there. That much I can do."

A ghostly hand was laid on his shoulder for a moment, then squeezed firmly. A feeling of great pride and deep regret flowed from the hand. There was no one there when InuYasha looked up.

Kaede emerged from the house and called, " InuYasha, we're ready for you now."

Torn, InuYasha looked toward the door where Kaede stood, holding a lamp. He desperately wanted to see for himself how Kagome was faring, but almost a much, he wanted to spend just a while longer with his father.

"I .. I have to go," he told the ghost as he rose to his feet, awkwardly holding his son. He smelled a faint scent of peonies, and a memory from long ago surfaced: a small room with a vase of peonies on a low table, he was sitting on the floor while gentle hands brushed his hair. So Mother was here too.

"Hey, old lady," he whispered, "It's been a while." He felt the lightest brush of a kiss on his brow, a soft breeze riffled through his hair. His floating feeling of isolation dissolved, his past surrounded him, his future was a wriggling bundle enclosed in his arms. He was being pulled back into the world; he had duties no one else could do. He felt a push - _Go on, son, seize your world_.

He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and stepped back toward the house where his love waited for them, saying, "Here goes nothing," meaning, "Here goes everything."

--------------------

The River Woman sat watching the currents, studying the shifts the new arrival had engendered.

The Gatekeeper entered her grove and stood with her under the plum tree, also studying the glowing threads in the currents for a time.

"_Emma-O inquires about your forecasts. Are there any positive developments?_" By her nature, the River Woman had a much subtler understanding of flow and currents than most; it was why she had been entrusted with this job.

"_The hanyou and the miko now have a son_," she replied.

"_May I see?_" The Gatekeeper leaned over for a closer look.

The River Woman waved her hand over the anchor piece; the air above it glowed and an image of InuYasha and Kagome sitting by their fire, Kagome holding their new son on her shoulder, appeared within it.

The Gatekeeper looked for a moment, then his eyebrows rose. "_Oh, is __that__ where he went? This should be interesting._"

The River Woman looked at the image, then at the Gatekeeper, frowning in consternation. "_Is something wrong? Was he not ready to be born?_"

"_No, no. This one is always ready to be reborn. It's his relatives that are never quite prepared._"

"_Prepared for what?_"

"_Let's just say they're going to be busy._"


	12. Chapter 12 Snips and Snails and Puppydog

Chapter 12 - Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog's Tails

Kagome had dispatched InuYasha to the Higurashis at first light after the baby was born to pass on the news. A very excited Mama peppered InuYasha with questions, most of which, in typical guy fashion, he could not answer. It wasn't long before Mama was spinning. It was very clear she desperately wanted to see the baby and it was just as clear that InuYasha was not about to bring Kagome through until he felt it was safe for her and the baby to travel. By now, everyone knew InuYasha well enough to realize that could be weeks.

Calm, placid Mama was frantic with frustrated anticipation and looked nearly ready to explode when Sota came up with a possible solution. He vanished into his room for a while then trotted back down the stairs fiddling with a tiny silver box.

"This is a digital camera," he said, showing the box to InuYasha. "I just set it all up for you. All you have to do is push this button to turn it on," (the box made a whirring noise as a tube pushed out the side) "then you point this at Kagome and the baby and push this button." The box whirred again, then clicked. "When you hear that click, you have a picture. Do that a few times and bring me back the camera. Then I'll move the pictures to my computer and Mama can see what they look like."

InuYasha looked at the camera suspiciously. "How does it do that?"

Sota thought about it a moment then said, "It copies the light reflecting off whatever you're taking the picture of."

"Where does it put it?" InuYasha turned the camera around and around, peering at it closely. "You can't hold light."

Uh-oh. Sota did not want to get into that one.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you," he said firmly. "So, let's just demonstrate it." Sota carefully walked InuYasha through taking a few pictures and showed him the results on the little screen on the back. He finished with the admonition, "You only have to use the two big buttons on the top. Don't mess with the rest of it. Just take the pictures and come back."

As InuYasha disappeared into the well house, camera in hand, Grampa asked Sota, "Do you think that was wise?"

Sota shrugged and said, "That's the camera Aunt Aiko gave me for that field trip last year. It's idiot-proof."

"Sota, this is InuYasha."

Sota sighed. "Yeah, I know. We'll get one good picture if we're really lucky."

--------------------

Kagome roused from a doze when InuYasha entered the house. He put the camera down on the table to assist her to and from the outhouse. They came back to find Shippo at the table inspecting the camera, poking buttons and twisting knobs.

"What's this?" he asked, just as he found the power button. The camera whirred, sticking out its lens. Startled, Shippo dropped the camera.

InuYasha jumped for the camera and picked it up. He pointed it across the room and pushed the take-picture button. There was no click.

"Shippo, you idiot! It was all set up. Put it back the way it was."

The camera passed to Shippo, who turned it around a few times, saying, "Me? You do it!" He handed it back to InuYasha.

"I don't know how." InuYasha said, handing it back again.

"And you think I do?" The camera changed hands again.

"Well, you're the one who moved things!" InuYasha held the camera up again and tried the picture button a couple more times. "Gahh!" He peered in the lens, then shook it a couple of times. Still no click. He found a lever that made the camera whir again while the lens went in and out, but still no click.

"All right, Shippo, show me what you moved."

Shippo leaned over the camera and pointed at a knob. "I turned this. It clicked when it turned."

"OK" InuYasha moved the knob a notch and pointed the camera again. A bright light flashed with the click, making both Shippo and Inuyasha jump.

"What was that?!" Shippo asked.

"I don't know," InuYasha answered, turning the camera around. "It didn't do that before."

He pushed the button again, blinding himself.

"Whoa..." He blinked a few times, waiting for the world to come back.

"All right, boys, you've played enough," Kagome said, amused. "Hand me the camera."

Things went very smoothly after Kagome took charge. She put the baby in InuYasha's lap and took a half dozen pictures, then sent InuYasha back with the camera before they could break anything.

--------------------

InuYasha dropped the camera off then hurried back home, not waiting to see the results of his great endeavor.

Mama and Grampa hovered by Sota's computer as he loaded the images. He opened the first one to be met with a video clip of InuYasha and Shippo's argument from a camera's eye view. Grampa started getting motion sick as the camera moved from hand to hand and faces swept in and out of view during the argument. There was a disconcerting view of InuYasha's giant eye peering into the lens, then Grampa nearly fell over when the camera was shaken. The last straw came when the picture swam in and out while the camera zoomed; Grampa reeled and had to lie down on the floor to make the world stop spinning.

The video broke off after Shippo suggested the knob. This was followed by a picture of a shelf laden with dishes, then a washed out and dazed InuYasha featuring a great shot up his nostrils. Finally, there were some pictures of InuYasha holding the baby. Mama was ecstatic.

--------------------

They named the baby Akira, for Kagome's father, but that was soon forgotten.

It was Sota's fault. All of the Higurashis were charmed by the new addition (once InuYasha unbristled enough to let anyone hold him), even Grampa, but Sota and the baby hit it off especially well.

Kagome began to suspect Sota had long been harboring a secret yearning for a puppy. He couldn't get enough of his nephew, delighting in carrying him around everywhere and showing him everything from his latest video game to what was for dinner. He had an appreciative audience; the baby's bright golden eyes drank it all in, his little ears flicked and turned to every sound, but his nose was the busiest thing of all, twitching and sniffing at everything. Many of the new scents tickled his nose enough to make him sneeze, a cute little "tschoo", followed by a little sniff. This absolutely delighted Sota, who took to imitating the sound after each sneeze. It was not long before the only "name" the baby responded to was "Tsuchiya".

"My son, the sneeze," Kagome lamented as she plopped him across her shoulder and thumped his back for a mid-meal burping.

Tsuchiya squirmed uncomfortably and finally produced the burp. _Blorp_. It was a particularly juicy one that time. Sota quirked an eyebrow at the mess on her shoulder and said, "It could have been worse."

--------------------

By the end of the first week, Kagome had discovered that Tsuchiya hated to be constricted in any way. The tight swaddling most infants found comforting infuriated him. Now that he was free, he wanted to swing his limbs, wriggle, and reach as far as he could. He also insisted on being where he could see whatever was going on.

It made it very hard for Kagome to get anything done; where the other women could sit and work while their babies slept in a sling on their backs, Tsuchiya fussed and fumed until he was front and center on her chest. Once there, he reached after everything that passed by. His aim was terrible and he hadn't really mastered grasping things yet, but it was still almost impossible to do anything around his random kicks and swings.

Kagome gamely tried to keep up with her chores, her miko lessons and her archery practice, but it was a becoming a farce. Kaede remarked she had never seen a child that active before. She gave Kagome a selection of sedating herbs, which Kagome tried without success.

"It will get easier when he can amuse himself," Kaede said. In the meantime, the village shook its head in wonder at the boy's energy.

--------------------

One evening about three weeks after Tsuchiya was born, a scream that could waken the dead (and probably did) had InuYasha bolting from the village to his house. He found Kagome crumpled on the floor and shaking like a leaf beside the baby's basket.

"It's not him!" she gasped, pointing wildly at the basket. "Someone stole the baby!"

It gave InuYasha a start for a moment, too. The baby peering out of the basket, crying from all the ruckus, was completely human, with medium brown eyes, a thatch of black hair that didn't stick up nearly as much as Tsuchiya's and normal ears and fingernails. Then he relaxed; outside of not having the dog smell and the demon tang, the baby smelled just like Tsuchiya.

"Will you get a grip?" he told Kagome. "He's just in his human phase. He'll be back to normal by sunrise."

"Oh. oh yeah." Kagome started breathing again and looked rather foolish. "I knew that."

InuYasha snorted softly, then went outside to look at the moon. It was three days before full. "OK, now we know when that's going to happen," he said with satisfaction.

Shippo looked thoughtful when he came in from whatever little expedition he had been on that day for a late dinner. "So, it really doesn't have to be the night of the new moon for everyone, does it?"

"No," InuYasha said. "That's just my day."

InuYasha had a hard time not laughing for the remainder of the night. Kagome started with surprise every time she went to fetch Tsuchiya, then relaxed again as she remembered what was going on.

It was his turn to panic when, at sunrise, the baby remained human.

"Uh..." he said, speechless.

"I knew it! He did get swapped!" Kagome wailed.

The only thing stopping InuYasha from agreeing was that he could not imagine how anyone in his right mind would want the brat. He picked him up and smelled him over again. Yes, that was definitely his son. So, why was he still only human?

"Um, look, I don't know what's going on, but he's definitely Tsuchiya." InuYasha said worriedly. "I guess it has something to do with being only a quarter demon. I never met one before, so I don't know how it works."

They spent the rest of the day indoors just watching him. He certainly acted like Tsuchiya, though he couldn't figure out what he had done to earn such an audience. He stopped frequently in his normal round of wriggling and squealing to stare back at them for a moment with puzzled eyes.

Finally, just as the last ray of sunlight vanished from the sky, Tsuchiya resumed his normal appearance.

"This is not good," Inuyasha declared, staring at the baby.

"Why? He's back to normal, isn't he?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, but once a month he's going to be fully human for an entire day. That's going to be awfully hard to hide."

Kagome sighed. He was right. It was going to be awfully hard to hide. And it was going to lead to questions about InuYasha himself.

--------------------

Kagome was losing it. It was the only explanation for the wild story she was telling him. She'd been getting progressively more irritable as time went on and her imagination was running away with her.

"You're getting paranoid," InuYasha scoffed. "He's not out to get you."

"No, seriously, watch this," Kagome insisted. She had just sat down to breakfast after feeding and changing Tsuchiya. She picked up her chopsticks and plucked up a bite of food. The instant it brushed her lips...

"We-eh!"

She put it down and looked at the baby. He was quiet.

She picked up the food again. Just as it reached mouth level...

"Weeeeeeeh!"

"Coincidence," InuYasha said.

Kagome flitted the food back and forth. Any time she showed even a hint of putting it in her mouth...

"Weeeh!"

InuYasha stared in the direction of his son. No, Kagome was not in his line of sight.

Food up. "Weh!" Food down.

Food up. "Weh!" Food down.

Food up. "Weh!" Food down.

"That's just weird!" No wonder Kagome had looked so harried lately.

"Tell me about it. It's not just that," she added, "He does it when I want to take a bath or pee, too."

"How does he...?"

Kagome shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."

--------------------

"There's nothing that says you have to be the only one to handle him," InuYasha declared a couple of days later. "I'll take care of him if you want to take a bath."

It was now well into August and the weather was beastly, suffocatingly hot and sweaty. Kagome had been longing for days to just wash off the sweat. It was far too hot to contemplate a soak in the hot spring; all anyone really wanted was a quick scrub followed by a bucket of water over the head. Surely they should be able to handle something that simple.

While Kagome warmed water for the bucket, InuYasha set up a large flat rock near the end of the porch to stand on so Kagome could keep her feet clean. They waited until just after Tsuchiya had eaten to try the bath. Kagome gathered her soaps, towel and robe and walked over to the end of the porch where the bucket awaited her.

Sure enough, as soon as the washcloth hit the water, Tsuchiya tuned up.

InuYasha called from inside the house, "Keep going, it's just a diaper change."

Sighing with the pleasure of it, Kagome started soaping up. Part way through, she remembered it had been a while since the last time InuYasha had changed Tsuchiya.

"InuYasha! Make sure he's covered when you swap diapers!" she called.

"Why?" he called back.

"Because he..."

"Aaugh!"

Kagome winced and completed, "...cuts loose when the air hits his bottom."

InuYasha glared at her through the open window, a wet spot arcing from his forehead to his left ear. "Now you tell me."

"He got Shippo up the nose yesterday if that's any comfort," Kagome offered.

"Not really," InuYasha grumbled as he borrowed the washcloth and mopped himself off.

--------------------

"Weh."

Pause.

"Weh."

Pause.

Kagome twitched slightly but was unable to muster more of a reaction than that.

"Weeh!"

Pa...ause.

"_**WE-EH-EH!**_"

"SHIPPO!" InuYasha called, or rather, croaked. The only difference between InuYasha and Kagome was that, while Kagome was flat on her face in the bed, nearly comatose, InuYasha was on his back.

_"O-o-ogh." _ It was Shippo's shift and that was Shippo groaning as he dragged himself out of his den to see what Tsuchiya needed this time.

"I thought babies were supposed to sleep a lot," Kagome muttered hysterically as she listened to Shippo rustle around checking him. A diaper change, then the dreaded announcement.

"Kagome! He's hungry again."

"He _can't_ be!" Kagome sobbed slightly. Shippo couldn't be serious. She could swear it was no more than half an hour since she had last unplugged Tsuchiya.

WeEHeh!"

"Well, he's pretty pissed that nothing's coming out of my thumb," Shippo reported.

Shuddering, Kagome climbed to her knees, crawled out of bed over a moaning InuYasha, and collected Tsuchiya. She crawled back to bed and collapsed, settling the baby on a breast before she passed out altogether. InuYasha protested again as she shifted, trying to get comfortable.

Shippo had already slid back to his den, hoping to get in some sort of nap before the next round.

In theory, three people ought to be able to handle a baby and a household. But Tsuchiya seemed to be immune to sleep. He never lasted more than half an hour before he was wide awake again, wanting changed, fed and someone to play with. And there was no peace until he got it.

Purely in the interests of self-preservation, Kagome, Inuyasha and Shippo had tried to split the duty into shifts. That way, in theory, at least one person might be able to sleep while the others managed the tiny tyrant. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. InuYasha still needed to go out regularly to patrol and Kagome was still the only person who could feed the insatiable Tsuchiya. Shippo was getting hung with his shift and the bulk of the housework.

All of them were punchy, almost delirious, when InuYasha decided enough was enough. He caught Kagome looking in bleary confusion at her rice pot that morning, trying to figure out where the electric cord plugged in, and had told her to grab what she needed, she was going to visit Mama. When she looked stupidly at the baby supplies, he snatched up a bag and stuffed it with some random clothes and a wad of diapers, put Tsuchiya in her arms and steered her to the well.

Once through, he pushed her to the house and through the kitchen door to her mother.

"She's not getting any rest at home. Can she spend a few days here?" he asked as they came through the door.

"Of course, come in, come in," Mama said, bustling both of them into the living room and taking the bag. "Sit down for a moment. I'll make some tea, then set up her room."

Mama ran the bag upstairs and was down in a moment, just in time to watch InuYasha keel over to the side and slump onto the floor, sound asleep.

"I thought he was just putting up a front," Kagome murmured as Mama relieved her of Tsuchiya and sent her off to bed.

It was six hours before anyone could rouse Inuyasha enough to get him off the floor.

Three days of sleeping and pampering did wonders for both of them. Much refreshed, they returned home to find that Shippo had also fared well with three days of sleep and had even managed to make a good dent in the housework.

It marked the start of a pattern that was to last for many years.

--------------------

Around the icon that marked InuYasha and Kagome's role in the game, a new icon appeared, a tiny mote of light that would hover briefly, then shoot as a lightning bolt to another position roughly orbiting the main icon. Little pops and puffs of energy burst from it now and again in its progress. The River Woman pondered long on how one harnesses lightning.

--------------------

_7/13/07 Authors note: Faithful readers:_

_Starting next week, I will be on vacation, far from any access to a computer, until mid-August. (Please don't flame me; at least you know why nothing's changing.) While traveling, I will take along my notebooks and will hopefully have some chapters backlogged when I get back. Fear not, this is not the end! _

_SamuraiDemonPuppy_


	13. Chapter 13 When a God Meddles

Chapter 13 - When a God Meddles

There is something about a new grandchild that can send even the most sensible person off the deep end; so it was with Mama. The next time they visited, Kagome and InuYasha found the house laden with toys and baby equipment. Somehow they managed to escape with only one enormous bag of toys, leaving the bulk of them at Mama's "for our next visit".

"What are we going to do with all this crap?" an exasperated InuYasha asked once they were safely back through the well. He and Kagome had had a silent running battle all through the visit; every time he had started to make a comment about the overload, she had jumped into the conversation quickly, heading him off and shooting him glares that informed him if he said so much as one syllable out of line, he would end up in a face plant so hard there would be tsunamis all along the Pacific Rim.

"That's easy," Kagome assured him. "We'll pick out four or five toys to keep and bring the rest with us to the children's group at harvest."

InuYasha sighed and looked again at the bag. Harvest was at least two weeks out. "You do realize that bag is bigger than the bedroom," he remarked. "Where are we going to sleep until then?"

"It's not that bad," Kagome said, rolling her eyes. "It may be a bit tight for a while, but we can manage."

InuYasha shook his head skeptically, but shouldered the bag without further comment. Once they were home, Kagome fixed dinner while InuYasha and Shippo sorted through the toys, seeing which ones sparked Tsuchiya's interest.

InuYasha sat crosslegged at the low table, Tsuchiya propped in his lap, and dangled a toy before him. Tsuchiya was just getting grasping things under control. Everything he succeeded in grabbing was then automatically shoved in his mouth for further inspection. Some time after the inspection, the toy would drop to the side and get replaced with the next one. Two piles built up; one held the toys that were dropped immediately and the other, smaller pile held those toys that held his interest.

A large, heavy, brightly colored rattle intrigued Tsuchiya for well over five minutes. Finally, it too slipped out of his grasp. As InuYasha leaned over to select the next toy, Tsuchiya decided he really wanted the rattle back instead. He arched backwards, reaching out to snag the rattle, then he snapped himself forward, fast and hard. The rattle flashed through a swift arc to smack squarely into InuYasha's left eye with a sharp "Whack!"

"Augh!" Lights sparkled in InuYasha's eye from the force of the contact.

Kagome spun around for a look. "What happened?"

"He got me in the eye with a rattle," InuYasha said, gingerly touching his eye socket.

"Let's see." Kagome leaned over InuYasha for a closer look and said, "I do believe you're going to get a black eye."

InuYasha looked sourly at his son and grumbled, "Great."

The shiner only lasted half a day, but there were still plenty of opportunities for half the village to notice it and offer up a dose of good-natured abuse.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei circled the middle plains, probing the currents and eddies that swirled through them. There was nothing obvious, but slight deviations in the tumbling flows calmed the turmoil here and there. Often, these deviations were short-lived, but the overall trend was toward moderation. Several of his most recent pieces had been oh-so-gently redirected, their forces diffused. He could scarcely even find the countering pieces. His hidden opponent was a master.

Phasing away from the plains, he slipped into the Realm of the Gods to think. He knew several of his brethren opposed his ascension, but he had yet to catch any of them actively working against him. Emma-O had been particularly grim lately, but he seemed to have more than he could manage already with the influx of the dead. Ama-terasu remained aloof, keeping to her path in the sky. Her brother, Susa-no-o, seemed to be enjoying the chaos, darting in from time to time to ride the currents himself. He occasionally churned up a storm and watched it slide across the game board, but did not really move actively in the game.

The Sea King and his people remained secluded in their own lands. The Depths were separate from all else; even the Realm of the Gods had few contacts with the Depths.

Perhaps the Sea King was the hidden opponent; the inhabitants of the Coral Palace were subtle and deep, well capable of playing the game through deft touches to the currents. Yes - it had been far too quiet in the Coral Palace. They must be working some secret project there.

Muchitsujo-rei returned to the Earthly plane and glided over the sea, a great albatross whose home was the wind. Beneath him, a sea turtle surfaced and lolled in the waves, breathing and taking in the warmth of the sun. Muchitsujo-rei turned on a wingtip and circled silently over the turtle, seeming deep in thought.

"_Is it true?_" he asked the turtle. "_I have heard the most unbelievable tale. Glowing Pearl of Wisdom was seen with the Sea Lord's tide jewels on the coast._"

The great turtle swam in silence; Muchitsujo-rei soared over him, waiting with calm patience, for turtles ponder deeply and long.

"_All has been tranquil in the Coral Palace. None I know of have gone abroad._"

"_It must be just a silly rumor,_" Muchitsujo-rei continued. "_I can't imagine Glowing Pearl of Wisdom at the coast with a human man anyway._"

"_Glowing Pearl of Wisdom is devoted to her lord_," the turtle agreed.

"_Ahh. It is as I thought._" Muchitsujo-rei sighed with relief and sought the skies once more.

The turtle told the shark. The shark told the dolphin. The dolphin told the octopus. Soon, all the sea knew that Glowing Pearl of Wisdom had a lover from the rocks by the sea in Ise and had promised him the power of the tides.

--------------------

Glowing Pearl of Wisdom ran wailing into the throne room of the Coral Palace and flung herself prostrate before the Sea King, weeping copiously and protesting her innocence. Behind her, her furious husband and equally furious brother came to blows; her husband outraged at her betrayal and her brother fiercely defending his beloved sister's honor.

Brilliant Eye of Courage slashed out with his sword, cutting through Glowing Pearl of Wisdom's neck, then fled, Prince Shining Wave of True Thought in hot pursuit.

Two dragons surged from the Coral Palace and spiraled fighting to the surface, trailing a maelstrom behind them. Water sprayed from their scales as they burst from the boiling sea; steam billowed away as they soared into the sky, forming roiling clouds that orbited the maelstrom below. Lightning flashed with great sky-piercing cracks as the forces built up around the battle. The two dragons circled and dodged, snapping and lunging, spinning ever faster and higher as a typhoon formed in their wake.

Shining Wave of True Thought seized Bright Eye of Courage, slashing deeply into his flanks and biting his neck. Blood droplets flew as Bright Eye of Courage thrashed and twisted, clawing at Shining Wave of True Thought as he desperately fought to regain his freedom. Shining Wave of True Thought clung to Bright Eye of Courage's back, then bit at his neck again, striking the mortal blow. Bright Eye of Courage became no more than a glowing blaze of light, dragon shaped, which stretched to a bolt of lightning that spread across the shattered sky, then he was gone.

Great ripples of disturbance radiated from the Coral Palace as courtiers separated into partisan camps around the two now feuding clans. The feud spilled out to the kami of the clouds and winds, who pushed each other about and threw lightning and hailstones at one another, blasting tall trees and pelting mountain tops with their fury. The land shifted uncomfortably, like a horse beset with gadflies, then settled itself, disgruntled, and went back to sleep.

--------------------

The ground finally stopped bucking, so Miroku let go of the door post he had been clinging to with his daughters as the apothecary's shop he was in crashed down around him.

"Sango!" he cried, looking back into the billowing dust and swirling powders in the store, which slowly revealed the shattered jars and fallen shelves that filled the room. "Sango!"

Coughs and moans came from under the piles of debris as the dust settled; a pair of the piles shifted as Sango and the apothecary started to climb out from under them.

Leaving the girls in Kirara's care, Miroku plunged into the wreckage, uprighting the fallen cabinets and pulling Sango and the proprietor free. Sango was cut and bruised, but otherwise seemed unharmed, the apothecary had broken a leg when his largest cabinet fell on him. Together, Sango and Miroku helped the man out of the store and propped him against a tree, then set about splinting his leg.

As they worked, Sango continued to cough a racking, powerful cough which shook her whole frame.

"Are you all right?" Miroku asked, greatly concerned. Sango was five months pregnant; the pounding cough could not be good for her or the baby.

The coughing fit finally ceased and Sango gasped, "I got a couple of lungs full of who knows what under that shelf. My chest feels like I have steel bands around it squeezing me tight." She exploded into another coughing fit as Miroku and the apothecary watched her with worried eyes.

Miroku looked at the druggist, asking, "What can you do?"

The man shook his head. "She was in a section of the shop that had some poisons and other powerful drugs. I don't dare give her anything else. Who knows how it will react with what is already in her body?"

"So what do we do?"

"Get her out into clean air, away from here. Keep her sitting. Some green tea may not hurt. She should cough up the poisons given time. Pray."

So Miroku put her on Kirara's back and flew her to a temple beside the sea, with clean, fresh, salt air that soothed her racked lungs. Slowly, the steel bands released from her chest, but not before the damage was done. She went into labor that night, and delivered a son who did not live to see the morn.

None could say who grieved the deepest, Miroku who had lost his long anticipated son, or Sango, who had failed to give him to him. Sango collapsed into herself; all well-intentioned words scraped on her soul, her lovely daughters seemed only to mock her failure, every look from Miroku seared her painfully, reminding her of the tragedy.

Hisui and Shinju sat in the shadows of their house and watched their mother with bewildered eyes. They only wanted their mommy back, wanted the hugs and kisses she used to give, but now mommy cried whenever she saw them and turned away.

Miroku watched with despair as his wife turned farther and farther from the world. He had wanted a son, but not at this cost.

--------------------

The farmers bringing in their harvest stopped as the land shifted beneath them and waited warily for the quake to end. It had been a significant shake; baskets and tools had fallen over and the buildings had creaked and swayed for a time. All eyes looked carefully around, waiting to see if that was the end, or just the precursor of something bigger. Finally, with shaky smiles, they picked up work again.

Two thirds of the harvest was under cover when a pair of battling clouds soared over the village, pelting the fields with hail and drenching them with rain. A lightning-struck tree exploded right beside InuYasha as he dashed by with a stack of filled baskets, sending him sprawling; the rice he was carrying scattered widely into the mud around him.

Across the plains, the scene replayed itself as other clusters of clouds ruined the long toil of other villages.

--------------------

The River Woman observed the many patches of ruined fields with dismay; starvation loomed for many villages in the coming year. Sighing, she studied the ruin before her.

Ah, there was an opportunity. A powerful warlord invaded the territory of the young heir to the neighboring lands in the west. Astoundingly, the young heir won, sweeping off the head of the great lord. All the surrounding daimyo paused to reconsider their plans. The choppy currents that tossed through those lands dampened as a small center of calm appeared.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei scowled. The deft hand controlling the events behind the failed coup was undisturbed, despite the turmoil still churning in the Coral Palace. Where was the other player?

--------------------

Miroku landed in the clearing in front of InuYasha's house and slid off Kirara's back. Kagome brightened when she saw who it was, but sobered quickly when Miroku brought his news.

"Please, can you come for a few days?" he begged. "Sango needs a friend, a woman friend, who she won't think is judging her."

"Miroku-sama, who could possibly judge her?" Kagome asked, dismayed. "It was an earthquake. No one can tell when those will happen."

"I didn't say anyone was judging her," Miroku replied, "she's just taking it that way. But she won't think that with you."

"Of course I'll come," Kagome said. "How could I do otherwise? But I'll have to bring Tsuchiya. Are you sure that won't make it worse?"

Miroku just looked at her miserably. "I don't know what else to do."

--------------------

"Sango-chan, you have no idea how sorry I am. What can I do to help?" Kagome brushed stray locks from Sango's face and pressed a bowl of soup to her lips. "Come on, just a bit. For me."

Sango sipped the soup obediently, but continued to stare dully at the wall. Kagome coaxed half the soup into her, then set aside the bowl and just sat beside her on the futon, holding her hand. Tears leaked unnoticed from Sango's eyes, ran down her cheeks to drip from her chin. Kagome never marked how long they sat there, lost in the silence, as time stood still. Finally, Sango stirred and asked, "Did you bring him, your little boy?"

"Yes," Kagome whispered.

"May I see him?"

"Of course. If that's what you want."

Sango nodded.

Kagome fetched him and brought him in, an armful of wiggles that clutched at her hair and craned his neck staring around him. He smiled at Sango when he saw her, then hid his face in Kagome's shoulder.

"Oh, Kagome-chan, he's beautiful," Sango breathed wistfully.

"Do you want to hold him?" Kagome asked.

Sango nodded. Kagome slipped him into her arms, where he studied the new person solemnly for a time, then busied himself sucking on his fist. Sango tickled his foot gently. He giggled and snatched at her hand, pulling her finger into his mouth. He gave her an insolent look, daring her to get her finger back. Sango pulled, but he hung on tightly.

"Wow, he's strong," Sango said, still trying to free her finger.

"Tickle him, he'll let go," Kagome advised.

Sango tickled his ribs; Tsuchiya squealed and let go, then pouted over the loss of the finger. A moment later, he started squirming uncomfortably and fussing.

"Is someone wet?" Kagome asked him, checking his diaper.

"Can I?" Sango asked, putting him onto her shoulder.

"OK," Kagome said, "but be careful. He's got a deadly aim when it comes to squirting people."

For a few days, Sango released her grief as she held and coddled a real living boy. Finally, she visited the tiny grave of her son, bade him goodbye and left a statue of Jizo there to watch over him. She wrapped the statue in a warm shawl for the winter and left him flowers, to thank the selfless god who watches over the ones who die too soon.

Kagome went home to her impatient husband after promising to keep in close touch for whenever Sango needed her.

--------------------

The River Woman learned of the death of Glowing Pearl of Wisdom when the fall run salmon came upstream with the tale. She mourned the loss of her old friend; they had danced together often where the river met the sea.

_I take your salt in my water, make tears to return to your depths. _

_They flow from my sight with the maple leaves, around the river's bend._


	14. Chapter 14 An Anchor Forms

Chapter 14 - Forming an Anchor

Muchitsujo-rei studied the flowing board, circling around it to examine the currents from many angles. He couldn't dislodge his opponent's anchor, but if he placed another one close to it, just there, he could channel the current over a set of riffles and make it boil with violence.

He decided against a youkai anchor. InuYasha's sword was proof against all but the most powerful youkai and those were notoriously difficult to control. He knew there were few mortals strong enough to form an anchor's core. He had one in mind, the ronin Shimomura Sumio, but the man was currently embroiled in the disputes between the Hojo and Imagawa clans, much too far to the south. He would need to do something to push the man farther north. Relations between the Hojo and the Ashikaga clans had been at a wary simmer for fifteen years; perhaps he could stir it up and reactivate the dead spot.

--------------------

Bored, restless and seventeen, Ashikaga Masanori itched and fidgeted in the small castle his uncle commanded at the border of Ashikaga and Hojo lands. The castle overlooked the entry to a mountain pass over which the Ashikaga trade goods spilled out of their valleys to make their way to a small harbor to the east. At this time of year, the trail was quiet and the castle's garrison spent their time in training exercises. Even the mock battles dreamed up by the arms master had lost their luster, and with winter coming on hard, Masanori could only look forward to being more restricted as the castle became snowbound.

He had to get outside for a while, ride a powerful horse breakneck over the trails, feel the cold brisk wind slap his face and purge his mind before he went mad. He put it to his uncle as a hunt; fresh meat for the castle before the winter snows locked them in. His uncle agreed, and sent him out with a small party of the castle's samurai and servants.

They went out armed for boar and deer. Luck favored them when they startled a small herd of deer. The older men felled two of them on the spot, but Masanori's shot only wounded his doe, which bounded off into the forest bleeding from the wound to her neck. Masanori and three of his friends rode after the deer. She shouldn't be able to get far with that injury; the blood coming from her neck was frothy, he must have nicked her windpipe.

The doe plunged downhill, along a well worn deer track beside a small stream. At a clearing, she paused, staggering, to pant. Masanori and his companions entered the top of the clearing and carefully and quietly tried to fan out around her to hold her there while they found a clear killing shot.

The doe stumbled a few wobbly steps and looked up, ears swiveling. Tadafumi's horse snorted loudly and she was off again, out of the clearing and leaping down the path in vain, mindless flight.

"Damn!" The four of them quickly kicked their horses into the pursuit.

"It is truly astounding how far a dead animal can run," Masanori thought in frustration as the doe ran on and on, stumbling and weaving now, as her life blood leaked into her lungs and her vigor faded. They thought they had her when she fell jumping a log, but incredibly, she scrambled to her feet and pushed on, out of the mountains and into a valley, where she finally came to ground beside a small river clearing.

Masanori quickly dismounted and slit the convulsing animal's throat before she could summon the will for another run. Tadafumi looked around him, trying to determine just where they were. Not recognizing any landmarks, he stood on his stirrups and craned his neck anxiously back and forth.

"Oh man," he said, his agitation making his voice quaver, "we better get out of here. We're outside the pass. This has got to be Hojo land. If we're caught here..."

"Yeah..." Masanori felt a surge of panic wash through him. It had been quiet, but it didn't take much to make a warrior jump to conclusions.

They quickly tied the deer onto Hideo's horse; as they finished the knots and stowed the extra cord, voices, women's voices, drifted to them from upstream. They froze and looked frantically around them for cover.

Too late. A small group of young women carrying baskets entered the clearing and stopped abruptly, staring at them with frightened eyes.

"They're dead in the way!" Tadafumi moaned. "What are we going to do?"

"How far do you think it is to the border?" Masanori asked.

"You mean, make a run for it? Just blow right through them?" Tadafumi stared up the trail and looked around again. His breath hissed anxiously through his teeth as he thought. "I don't know. I don't recognize any of this. The mountain's back there a ways. And they'll be on us in no time. If we blow a turn..."

"Hostages," Masanori said. "We'll grab three of them. That way, we'll at least get a chance to talk."

It was risky, but no one had a better idea and the girls were about to bolt. As one, the young men all swung into their saddles and charged the girls, who screamed and scattered. Masanori, Tadafumi and Fujio each leaned over and scooped up a kicking, yelling girl and swung her before him as they all bolted up the trail toward the mountain. While the other girls were content to wail and cry, Masanori's girl thrashed and tried to lunge off the saddle, grabbed at passing branches, and failing that, reached behind her head to claw at Masanori's face.

"Stop that!" he snapped, "You'll dump both of us under his hooves!"

"Good!" she snarled, redoubling her efforts.

Masanori managed to catch an arm and twist it painfully behind her back. "I don't want to hurt you," he said urgently as they continued to plunge up the trail. "I'll let you go as soon as we're back in Ashikaga land. I just don't want to get shot getting there."

"Ashikaga!" she said, startled. "You're spies!" She made another lunge for freedom, then snapped back into his chest as her shoulder was wrenched painfully.

"No!" he said, "We were hunting. We chased an injured deer down here, we didn't notice where we were until it was too late. I swear it; we'll let you and your friends go at the border."

"There!" Hideo called ahead of him. "I see the border posts!"

They galloped another hundred feet up the trail, around the first corner, then pulled up long enough to release the girls. Masanori and his hostage paused for a brief moment to stare at one another, to see who the other had been.

The girl was extraordinarily pretty, with snapping black eyes under graceful brows, a straight nose and even teeth behind small coral lips. Her cheeks were flushed with the cold wind from the ride and she was panting from the struggle. A faint air of haughty willfulness hung about her and her clothes were of noticeably better quality than her companions. The headman's daughter, perhaps.

She, in her turn, saw a young, well-equipped warrior, muscular and trim, riding a powerful horse with understated, but rich, trappings. Although he wore clothes fit for the hunt, they were heavy and supple, draping with a smooth elegance that told of their former glory. The face above the fine clothes showed a nature more generous than cruel, still untried and impetuous. He wavered a moment between his danger and hers. He didn't like leaving the girls unescorted, but protecting them meant his own life.

"Go! Go quickly!" he cried. "Go back to your friends and get home before dark. It's not far if you hurry." The horse under him danced with his agitation. With a despairing look, he called again, "Go!" Then he and his companions turned and cantered up the trail.

--------------------

"eeeeEE**EEE**EEeeeaaaahyayayayayayaya." Rustle. Jing. Jinglejingle. Jing. Jing... "Thpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpt." ...Thump...thump...clunk... Shiffle-rustle... "Mmmm...Hmmm...Alalalalalalalal." ...Jing-jing-jingle. ... taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap...

Miles away from any hint of trouble, InuYasha glared through the darkness toward Tsuchiya's basket, then stuffed his head under his pillow. The incessant tapping was still there, merely muffled. Just what exactly was that brat's problem with the concept of sleep? He no longer required the presence of other people to amuse himself, but that had not made sleeping around him any easier. Instead, everyone in the house just spent the night wondering what he had managed to get hold of that was making all the noise.

**RRR-II-I-IP!** InuYasha jolted upright and stared at the basket. He couldn't think of anything that could make that sound unless Tsuchiya was shredding his blanket. He got up to check.

Tsuchiya gave him a friendly grin when he looked in the moonlit basket, then slapped the two pieces of velcro he had together and yanked them apart again. **RI-IP!**

InuYasha blew out an exasperated breath and stared at the boy.

"You do that on purpose. I know you do," he accused.

"Ah?" Tsuchiya gave him a quizzical look and started chewing on the velcro.

"That's enough. Hand it over." InuYasha confiscated the velcro after a brief tussle. Maybe now he could get some sleep. "Since I'm up anyway," he added, glaring at Tsuchiya significantly, "let's check your pants."

He was, of course, wet, so InuYasha changed him and brought him in to Kagome to share the fun. "Chow time!" he announced smugly when Kagome cocked a sleepy eyebrow at him.

"Gee, thanks," she grumbled as Tsuchiya appeared beside her.

"My pleasure," replied Inuyasha, settling back into bed.

--------------------

Yoshimi, the tax collector for the northern Hojo precinct, had seen the girl on his rounds for years. He had not paid much heed to her when she was a scrawny half-grown kid, but now that she was developing a woman's curves, he took note of the sparkling eyes and sleek hair. When his wife died after a miscarriage, his interest in her became more than academic.

Inquiries into her village revealed she was the headman's daughter and not yet promised. Yoshimi wasted no time starting the marriage negotiations. Her father was quick to see the advantages to himself and his village of having a daughter married to the local tax collector. He and Yoshimi soon agreed to terms.

The girl, Minori, was less pleased about her match. She sat obediently beside her father during the betrothal ceremony, eyes downcast as befit a dutiful daughter, but she stole sharp discriminating glances at her intended husband through her lashes. The man before her looked hard and uncaring; his servants cringed slightly as they jumped to their orders and the horse he had ridden in on looked thin and jaded. She had heard unsavory rumors about what had actually killed his wife, that the woman had been beaten before the miscarriage.

Visions of another samurai flashed through her mind, a young man with a kind face that she had seen only briefly, wearing the Ashikaga mon on his gear and clothes, but Ashikaga was out of her reach, beyond the boundary.

Later that night, she complained bitterly to her parents, pointing out her objections to the match. Her father informed her it was too late now. They could not honorably withdraw.

Minori was not at all sure she was willing to die for the honor of a father who put so little regard into his daughter's well being. She decided there were much better prospects for her life elsewhere. And so, trusting to the rain of a storm to muddle her trail, she fled into the mountains and threw herself on the mercy of the Ashikaga castle. She misjudged the rain. Instead of a clean-washed trail, the mud captured her footprints and led her pursuers right to her refuge.

Masanori wanted to give Minori sanctuary, but the last thing his uncle wanted was a border incident. Despite his nephew's strenuous objections, he turned the girl over to the party that came to claim her.

Masanori couldn't accept this; the next night he and his friends made a raid on her village to rescue her, not realizing she had been sent to the Hojo castle for safekeeping. The headman complained of his treatment to the castle, who sent an armed party to the Ashikaga castle demanding Masanori be turned over for Hojo justice.

Despite his rashness, Masanori was very well placed within the Ashikaga clan and was popular with the castle garrison. His uncle refused the demand, saying they would deal with him themselves.

This declaration did not suit the Hojo; they settled in for a siege, expecting the little castle to break before long. Both sides postured and feinted for about a week, until the first winter snows drove the Hojo back home.

News of the tale reached Odawara castle, the headquarters of the Hojo clan. The Hojo daimyo chose an aggressive stance, replacing the castle commander with Shimomura Sumio. Sumio had a way of getting things done, as long as one didn't examine his methods too closely. The Hojo were not too particular, as long as he held their border secure.

At the same time, the Ashikaga began secret negotiations with the Takeda and the hidden remnants of the Uesugi to bolster their position come spring.

--------------------

In their quiet little backwater village, Kagome and InuYasha's lives continued undisturbed. Kagome was scheduled for another spiritual lesson in the afternoon with Kaede. She had found the only way to get anything done in the lessons was to leave Tsuchiya with Shippo; Shippo was napping in anticipation of the ordeal.

Kagome sighed and looked at her storeroom again. There was no way around it; she was going to have to go shopping. At one time, it had been a pleasant break to go into the village and visit her neighbors. These days it was more of a high-performance obstacle course. But the last few days had been frantic and the food supplies had gotten away from her. InuYasha was out, chasing down some boys from a neighboring village who had raided the brewshop for sake last night. The boys were just an annoyance; it had become the vogue lately among the surrounding villages' teenagers to see just how far they could get with a raid before InuYasha caught up with them. Last night's batch had been cleverer than most, InuYasha was usually back before dawn after having scared them all silly, loosened a few teeth and confiscated the spoils.

Right, well, Tsuchiya was fed and comfortably sleepy. If she went now, she might get it done before he wound up again. She gathered her bags and a pair of empty bottles and settled Tsuchiya on her back for the trip, walking gently into the village square. Tsuchiya dozed against her shoulder until she entered the vegetable stall. The baby perked up as soon as she entered, his golden eyes looking around with interest and his little nose twitching as he took in all the varied scents of the produce.

"Oooh, who's the handsome little man?" cooed Miyako, tickling Tsuchiya under the chin. Tsuchiya giggled and snuggled closer to Kagome, giving Miyako an engaging shy grin.

"He's such a flirt!" Miyako laughed as she gave him a small carrot to chew. Kagome eyed the carrot dubiously, weighing its potential for mayhem. It was a lot smaller than last week's bunching onion which Tsuchiya had poked into poor old Minoru's eye. Maybe it was safe. Still, this was Tsuchiya...

Kagome sighed, relenting. While Tsuchiya examined the carrot, she selected some daikon, burdock, onions, mushrooms and a kabocha pumpkin, then made it safely out of the stall, one sack filled.

With her bag of vegetables over her arm and Tsuchiya happily sucking on his carrot, Kagome made her way to Aiko, the brewmistress, next. Just as she approached the threshold, Tsuchiya dropped the carrot in the dust, then burst out crying when Kagome refused to give it back. The crying ramped up quickly in volume and shrillness until, ears ringing, Kagome stooped and picked up the carrot.

"Ewww. Icky," she informed Tsuchiya examining the carrot which was now coated with slimy, gritty mud.

"eeeEE**E**EEeeeee!" Tsuchiya squealed, reaching desperately for the carrot and yanking her hair in his frantic lunge.

"Oww!" Kagome yelped, grabbing her hair back.

"Aa, aaa, aa, ah!" Tsuchiya was still flailing over her shoulder and kicking off against the shawl holding him to get higher up.

"All right, all right, let me dust it off!" Kagome exclaimed, rubbing the carrot off on her apron. She got most of the grit off and, shuddering slightly, handed him the carrot. He sucked on the carrot again for a moment as Kagome went in the door, then began using it to rap her on the back of the head.

"No. Don't hit Mama," Kagome said sternly, holding the carrot still against her shoulder.

"Yaah!" Tsuchiya wrestled with her for control of the carrot. Failing, he sulked, sucking on her shoulder.

Kagome took a moment to swallow her exasperation and remember why she was here, then she smiled and bowed to Aiko.

"Good morning, Aiko-san. I hope you are well today."

Aiko bowed back respectfully. "Indeed I am, Kagome-sama. You look busy, so what can I help you with."

"I'm completely out of cooking-grade sake and I'm running low on vinegar," Kagome said as Tsuchiya recovered from his sulk and sniffed the pungent aromas of vinegar and soy. Kagome lifted her bottles from her bag for refilling. While she was bent over, fumbling around as she untangled a bottle stopper from the net of the bag, Tsuchiya examined his surroundings. A vividly patterned cruet caught his eye. He reached over Kagome's shoulder and snatched it, then thumped it firmly on her head.

"Oh!" Kagome staggered, dazed, as stars danced in her eyes.

Aiko caught Kagome's arm and steadied her, then tried to pull the cruet out of Tsuchiya's hands. He yowled a protest and pulled back. He was surprisingly strong, a fact no one really appreciated until they were in a tugging match with him. After a vigorous yank, Aiko won, falling backward into her shelves. Several jars tumbled to the floor, spilling their contents.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" cried Kagome as she helped Aiko back to her feet.

"Eh. Never mind that. Let's just fill up your bottles and get you on your way," Aiko grunted, straightening and brushing her hair back. "Strong little beggar, aren't you? I might have figured, knowing your father." Tsuchiya grinned a sunny grin back at her. "Right then, let's see what we have here." Aiko unstopped the first bottle and sniffed. "Sake." She turned around and filled the bottle from a cask behind her, then seized the other bottle. Kagome verified the stopper was firmly set on the sake bottle then slipped it into her mesh bag as the vinegar gurgled into its bottle.

For a few short seconds, Tsuchiya was unmonitored, and in that time he crouched down in the shawl and reached under Kagome's arm to seize a burdock root from the vegetable bag. Long and stiff like a wood switch, the root was a near-lethal weapon in his hand. He pulled it from the bag in a wide arc, dashing a line of cruets, jars and small bottles from their shelf along the way. Exotic infusions and expensive sauces crashed to the floor to meld into a powerfully reeking stew. The last jar to tumble contained freshly grated horseradish which had been packaged in vinegar to mellow.

Gasping from the fumes, the women fled the shop. Tsuchiya coughed and choked behind her then started crying as Kagome and Aiko stopped upwind of the shop, their eyes streaming.

"Oh! Oh my! Aiko-san, I can't even begin to apologize enough," Kagome said abjectly and bowing repeatedly through her apology. "Please tell me what I can do to help put it right."

"Well, Kagome-sama, for starts, let's just have me deliver to your house from now on," Aiko gasped. "As for the rest, I'll tally the losses and perhaps you can provide me with herbs and firewood for a time." She handed Kagome the bottle of vinegar, which she still had clutched in her hand.

Kagome retreated, bowing again and again, and made her escape.

There was just the fishmonger left. Still rattled from the disaster at Aiko's, Kagome made her way to Saito's fish ponds. As she approached, two of Saito's daughters jumped up and begged to hold Tsuchiya. Kagome handed him over with a sigh of relief; she could count on the girls to keep him entertained.

Saito laughed at the expression on her face. "Rough day?"

"You have no idea," she moaned. "He just single-handedly destroyed Aiko-san's shop."

Saito laughed again and said sympathetically, "He is a handful."

Kagome looked at her boy in the girl's arms and asked, "How can someone so small cause so much trouble?"

"He's a boy!"

"My brother was never like this," Kagome objected.

"Your brother is not InuYasha's son," Saito pointed out.

"I keep wondering how his mother managed," Kagome sighed.

"His mother?!" Saito actually looked startled at the thought that InuYasha had had a mother. Kagome often got the impression most of the villagers thought InuYasha had walked fully formed from the forest into their lives. His history was a distant memory at best, more legend really, with only odd snippets of it known. Only Kaede and a couple of the other elders remembered the events of fifty years ago, and even then, they had not known where InuYasha had originally come from. He may as well have been born of moonbeams and forest mists.

"His mother was a mortal woman from long ago," Kagome stated. "I don't know much more than that. He never talks about it."

Saito pondered for a time, then shook his head, having nothing more to offer. He returned to the matter of business. "I have mackerel in fresh today," he offered. "My cousin had a large catch yesterday and sent a couple of baskets my way."

"Oh, that sounds good!" Kagome exclaimed. "I haven't had mackerel in months." She selected enough to grill that night and pickle for the morrow. As Saito wrapped the fish in oil cloths, he said, "My cousin also brought news. The Hojo clan is having another dispute with the Ashikagas and are planning to refortify their North East castle. They have a new castle keeper coming in at the head of a small army. His name is Shimomura Sumio and he has the reputation of a violent and grasping man."

"Does Kaede-sama know?" Kagome asked. Saito, being an easy man to talk with, always seemed to have the news before anyone else.

"I passed it on to the elders at council this morning," Saito answered. "InuYasha wasn't there, so please be sure to tell him too."

Kagome nodded, sucking on her teeth thoughtfully. The North East Castle of the Hojo was three days journey south and east of the village, in the richer open plains of the river valley. It was still within an easy distance for a greedy warlord to consider this village his rightful domain. Gossip with the villagers had told her what they could expect once the new keeper had settled himself and 'visited' his local villages. InuYasha was just one man, hanyou though he was. Could he handle a trained and hardened army?

--------------------

Shimomura Sumio was no sooner in his assigned castle that his presence was felt throughout the area. All his neighbors quickly discovered his reputation for ruthlessness was well deserved. Taxes were heavily increased and rice, food and weapons were confiscated. Fathers soon learned to hide their daughters whenever riders left the castle. Young men fled from conscription gangs into the mountains, descending into their villages only after dark to deliver game they had caught and receive what rice could be spared. As winter descended, the specter of hunger haunted ever more villages.

--------------------

It was now early winter; the rain that had been falling all night turned to sleet, and the temperature in the house dropped precipitously. Mist formed before Kagome in the lamplight as she breathed. She draped a heavy shawl around her shoulders and stood at the door, looking out into the white-streaked darkness of the stormy night. InuYasha and Shippo were still out there. She hadn't seen them since just before noon, when the rain had started.

Shippo, who had many contacts among the small youkai of the forest, had been hearing rumors of rogue wolves haunting the northern edge of the forest. InuYasha had gone out with him to check it out.

Kagome had tried to sleep, but between her anxiety and Tsuchiya's fretfulness over a new tooth that refused to emerge, she had finally given it up as a bad job. She set a kettle of water and a pot of broth to simmer on the mostly-banked coals of the fire as she waited. Towels and dry robes also waited, warming, by the hearth. She brewed some tea and sipped it, steadying her nerves, then passed the time reviewing her latest lessons from Kaede. They were just beginning barrier spells.

The wind picked up and moaned through the trees. The last few leaves clinging to the branches rattled past, scrabbling over the porch and across the yard. The window screens rattled and flexed, drafts made the lamp flame dance, despite the shade protecting it. Tsuchiya whimpered and squirmed in his sleep; his tooth hurt, but he was too exhausted to rouse fully.

Kagome sighed and looked out the door again. She took another sip of the tea, then knelt on a cushion by the fire and closed her eyes, trying to muster the calm needed before forming a spell. Slowly, breath after breath, the swirling turmoil of her thoughts stilled and a clear center in her inner vision appeared, pushing back the shades.

A couple of sharp thumps and rattles on the porch made her jump, then she heard brisk shaking as flying water and slush hit the wall. She looked up, then rose, heading for the door as it slid open and InuYasha and Shippo entered quietly, both drenched and Shippo shivering badly. InuYasha's eyes took in the lit lamp and the simmering broth.

"Why are you still up?" he demanded. "I can take care of myself."

"Tsuchiya's tooth has been bothering him for most of the night," Kagome replied. "I wasn't sleeping anyway. Get out of those wet things," she continued, handing over the towels and robes. "You'll catch your death of cold." She turned to the fire to ladle broth into soup bowls and stir in some miso, then slipped in some cubed tofu, mushrooms and a sprinkling of minced dried peppers.

InuYasha snorted softly at the thought of catching a cold, but Shippo took the soup gratefully enough, wrapping his shaking paws around the bowl and sipping the salty soup.

"Go on," Kagome said, pressing InuYasha's bowl into his hand, then picking up the sopping clothes and hanging them, stretched out, on a frame before the fire.

"They should be dry by morning," she added as InuYasha eyed his fire-rat kimono, loathe to take it off, even in its current half-frozen condition. He slipped his sword into the sash of his robe before he settled by the fire to sip his soup.

Kagome refilled Shippo's bowl, and slowly his teeth stopped chattering as his fur dried and he warmed up. A short time later, when he had nearly fallen asleep in his bowl, he excused himself and slipped off to bed.

"What took so long?" Kagome asked softly, disappearing into the bedroom and returning to stand behind InuYasha. "I expected you hours ago."

"The storm, mostly," he answered. "There are a lot of branches and trees down in the mountains."

"And the wolves?" she asked. He felt gentle tugs as she started to brush the sticks and leaves out of his hair.

He shook his head slightly. "Not really a problem. Some eastern tribe that got pushed out of their lands. It looks like Koga took them in."

"Koga!" she exclaimed. "Did you see him? How's he doing?"

InyYasha's ears flattened at the interested note in her voice. "Why do you care?" he asked, suddenly surly. "That fleabag has nothing to do with us!"

The brushing stopped abruptly with a much harder tug. "How can you say that?" she snapped. "He was a good friend and he helped us with Naraku. He lost almost his entire clan in that mess. I'd like to know he has made a new beginning."

She started brushing again, but now she was making no attempt to be gentle in her annoyance.

InuYasha sulked under the now harsh treatment. He didn't want to admit it, but he had been enjoying the brushing. Echoes of the last time anyone had cared about him had woven themselves into Kagome's gentle strokes. He wanted that feeling back. That was really the problem, wasn't it? He and Kagome had been so caught up in their daily tasks they had lately neglected to remind each other of their love. A quick peck here, a hand squeeze there and far too much time between them as they juggled Tsuchiya and their other duties.

He reached around behind him, caught her hand and pulled her around to sit in his lap. "Hey," he said, "Sorry." He looked intently in her eyes for a moment, then kissed her thoroughly. She clung to her resentment for a moment, stiff backed and unyielding, then relaxed into the kiss, ending up nestled into his shoulder with her own arm around his waist.

"How does a nice warm snuggle under the covers sound?" he asked as he nibbled on the top of her ear. She nodded, so he lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom, taking care to kiss her again as he went.

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	15. Chapter 15 Bad Deals and Retribution

Chapter 15 - Bad Deals and Retribution

Yamashita Yasuo made a comfortable living enriching himself by "providing escort services" to the traders who used the road through the mountain pass controlled by his castle. His fees were exorbitant, but since his road was by far the most expedient path to the north, the traders grumbled, but paid. That is, until the ogre arrived. Yasuo was not equipped to deal with supernatural threats, despite what he advertised. He had the usual array of charms and trinkets on his men and their equipment, but they only served to alert the ogre that they were near. After the second caravan under his protection was chewed up, business fell sharply and those he could entice demanded concrete proof he had addressed the problem.

Miroku and Sango had been settled for the last few years on the outskirts of a little mountain village near Yamashito Yasuo's domain. They had a tidy made little business of exterminating nuisance demons and exorcising angry ghosts. It wasn't quite like the glory days when they were hunting Naraku with Kagome and InuYasha, but business was respectable. The mountain forests and gorges sheltered more than their share of youkai and the area residents were very pleased to have someone to turn to when their simple charms no longer worked.

When Yasuo approached them about providing their services to his escort, Miroku insisted on a hefty hazard fee before he took the contract. Ogres were big game for him and Sango, though not entirely out of the question. Armed with a large pile of fresh ofuda sheets and with Sango's weapons all carefully honed and her armor in full repair, they joined the next caravan at the base of the mountain. They had left their daughters with neighbors and brought Kirara with them.

Yasuo's guards did not look very impressed when they reported in. Miroku was not the picture of a sohei or warrior-monk and they had a dim opinion of women who thought they could swing a sword. The huge boomerang Sango had slung on her shoulder was just a prop to awe the incredulous and who brought a cat to a battle?

The plan was to set out at daybreak with the hope of clearing the pass before nightfall. Despite the guards' misgivings, they made room as Miroku took his place at the head of the column and Sango took the rear.

All went well at first. They had crested the summit in the midafternoon and were hastening down the farther slope when a pack horse slipped on loose rocks in the trail and went lame. Yasuo's caravan master refused to leave the beast and progress slowed to a crawl. Nightfall found them still in the mountain forest, far from any settlements. They chose a defensible camping spot, a small clearing against a cliff, and Miroku set up a barrier around the camp while Sango helped build a large fire. Miroku warned the caravan that they must remain within the barrier until sunrise, then he settled himself to hold the spell for the night.

Mists gathered in the still of the night, magnifying the forest sounds as it veiled the view. The nervous traders grew ever more frightened as the creaking of tree branches turned into the moans of the ogre and rustling leaves became its footsteps as it prowled the edge of the firelight.

Three of the traders counted their way through their rosaries, promising gifts to Buddha for their salvation with each round of the beads. The guards sat with staring eyes, bows and arrows at the ready should they need to fight. Sango and the caravan master examined the lame horse, rubbing it down and putting a healing salve on its cut foot.

Something popped loudly and the traders started and stood, looking out into the mists.

"The fire," Sango said soothingly, "It was just the fire."

They settled somewhat, but still shot anxious glances into the gloom.

The horses shifted restlessly, their bridles jingling, as they too looked out into the forest.

A long eerie wail rose out of the darkness, climbing to a hair-raising warble before it trailed off. Panicked, one of the horses pulled its stakes and danced around the fire. The caravan master and one of the traders jumped for its ropes; the horse bolted, dragging the hapless trader with him, and they disappeared into the darkness beyond the boundary.

"Kirara!" Sango cried, snatching up Hiraikotsu while the cat transformed into her full size. Sango vaulted onto Kirara's back and they launched themselves into the sky as shrieks of terror came from the night.

"Damn! Where is he?" Sango exclaimed, peering through the mist-shrouded trees below her. Kirara snarled and swerved abruptly, plunging down through the clouds. As the shadowy figure of the ogre appeared to their left, Sango hurled Hiraikotsu spinning into the night. The giant boomerang struck the back of the ogre's head, making him drop the screaming man in his grasp.

"Run! RUN!" Sango yelled as she wheeled up to catch her weapon.

The man whimpered and stared from where he had landed on his back, then rolled to his feet and scrambled away as the ogre reached again for his lost quarry.

Sango threw Hiraikotsu again, slicing into the ogre's arm. It roared and looked around for its attacker. Kirara's flames blazed brightly in the gloom and the ogre saw them immediately; it swiped out with its massive hand to swat them from the sky.

Kirara and Sango tumbled end over end and landed in a heap against the rocks at the base of the cliff. Kirara rolled to her feet and shook herself, but Sango lay crumpled in a daze, helpless to defend herself.

The trader proved to have more backbone in a pinch than even he, himself, believed. He darted from the bushes under which he was hiding and, scrambling to Sango's side, drew her sword. Lifting the blade over his head, he charged the ogre, screaming in defiance and terror as he hacked wildly around the ogre's feet and legs. Kirara launched herself back into the sky to fly directly into the ogre's face and slash at its eyes. The ogre fell backwards and landed heavily in the trees. Kirara and the trader returned to Sango; the trader heaved her onto Kirara's back and scrambled on behind her, kicking Kirara's flanks and yelling "Go cat, go!"

Kirara leapt skyward and they wheeled through the air seeking the way back through the protective shield. The man's panic rose rapidly as he searched the cliff face, whimpering, "Where is it? Where is it?" The face of the cliff looked entirely unoccupied; there was no hint of a campsite.

"Let us in! Let us in! Oh, Gods, please, where are you?" he howled.

The air to his left shimmered and suddenly the campsite was visible. Kirara dropped toward the fire and landed.

Miroku was on his feet now, glancing quickly at his wife as she was bustled off the big cat's back and laid near the fire.

"You lot," he snapped at the guards, "stand here with those bows ready."

The guards arranged themselves in front of the fire with their arrows knocked and their bows drawn. Miroku quickly walked the line, putting ofuda on the arrows.

"Aim for his chest!" Miroku ordered. "On my call!"

Moments later, the huge form of the ogre appeared, a dark shadow among the trees. Miroku muttered something, whether prayer or charm the guards weren't sure, then ordered, "Now!"

The arrows leapt out to embed themselves in a cluster on the ogre's chest; the paper ofuda glowed against its black skin and vanished. Only a few guards had the presence of mind to reload, the rest stared up at the ogre, waiting to see what would Miroku's ofuda would do.

"Arrows!" he snapped. They jumped back to themselves and hastily reloaded as he once again attached ofuda.

"This time at his belly!" he yelled, "On my mark!" Again they heard the charm-prayer, then the order, "Now!"

Arrows sprinkled themselves on the ogre's belly. The ogre had slowed his advance to pluck arrows from his body. Fragments of arrows fell to the ground as the guards reloaded.

"Once more to the chest!" Miroku ordered.

"But it didn't exactly do anything," objected a guard.

"And I'm not exactly done yet," Miroku retorted as he put the next batch of ofuda on the arrows. "Now!"

The arrows flew again.

"Just how many more volleys is this going to take?" the sergeant of the guard grumbled. "He's getting way too close to keep this up!"

The ogre stopped moving as his chest began to glow with a red-gold light. Miroku stared intently at him, muttering another spell urgently. The ogre looked down, brushing away more arrows as he tried to knock away the spell. Arrows fell again, but the spell continued to build. The glow swiftly ran from red-gold to golden-white, then the ogre's heart burst in a blinding white flash and he fell, dead, at their feet.

--------------------

"...and for the loss of my pack horse, I deduct ten ryo. For the destruction of its cargo, a shipment of fine brocaded silk, now shredded and blood stained, I deduct 50 ryo. That leaves a balance of 35 ryo."

Yamashita Yasuo stared back with cold indifference as Miroku bellowed, "I damned near lost my wife in that fiasco! There was no mention in the contract of responsibility for damages! I got every one of those traders and most of their cargo over the mountain intact! And I killed that ogre. Pay up!"

"You killed the ogre?" Yasuo asked archly. "My report says my men's arrows killed it. That reminds me, you need to cover the replacement of my arrows. Two ryo."

Miroku was surrounded by Yasuo's guards in the meeting chamber of his castle. There was very little he could do at the moment to get satisfaction. However, he had been taught by a master: _don't get mad, get even_. Miroku was very, very good at getting even.

"May I at least beg the indulgence of your physician to attend to my wife? She still has not fully recovered her memory from the blow to her head," Miroku asked, bowing humbly.

Yasuo smiled beneficently at this chance to show his magnanimity, now that the bothersome little priest was showing proper respect. He clapped his hands sharply and told his attendant, "Tell Isao-san he will be needed this afternoon to attend to an injured woman." He added to Miroku, "My physician will meet you at the gate."

Whatever the shortfallings of his master, Isao was a kind and knowledgeable man. Miroku felt a twinge of guilt in using him to gain entry to the castle, but thinking of what had nearly happened to Sango easily squashed it. Together, they returned to Isao's office to get packets of herbs and written instructions. Miroku talked him up the entire time, cheerfully relating his own experience in healing and asking questions. None of the guards thought twice about letting him in, he was with Isao on a legitimate errand. After collecting his herbs, Miroku said he would show himself out. Once out of sight, he started exploring.

People generally think alike, up to and including where to hide treasures, and Miroku was an experienced plunderer. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to find the treasure room. It wasn't even really guarded. Miroku picked the antique lock and went in to help himself.

Ryo were all very well and good, but often there were smaller, lighter and more valuable treasures to be had than gold coin. Miroku took what was owed him, then inspected the room for punitive damages. As he slipped a few strands of pearls and jade into his robes, he felt the aura of something magical coming from a chest at the back of the room. He opened the chest and dug through the layers of cloth wrapping the object to find a mirror. Where most mirrors had a polished metal face, this one had a silvery translucent stone in its frame that was shimmering and swirling with barely contained power. Miroku wondered just how that little warlord came into possession of this, a potent and dangerous artifact in untrained hands. He decided to do them both a favor and take it as his last item.

He stuffed a bronze plaque of Buddha in some of the silk wrappings and repacked the chest, then slipped out the door, relocking it behind him. A few minutes later, he had walked casually out of the castle, waving his packet of herbs cheerily at the guards as he went.

--------------------

Myoga, the flea, stopped on the window sill of InuYasha's bedroom and listened carefully. After the sendoff he had had from InuYasha over a year ago, he had been loathe to show his face anywhere in his neighborhood. As it was now, though, this was the best place he could think of to find shelter.

He had been splitting his time between staying with Toto-sai and mooching off Miroku's household. Toto-sai was excellent company, a pair of old men reminiscing about the old days, but at the moment he was consumed with a commission from Sesshomaru, and Myoga did not like being anyplace Sesshomaru was haunting. Sesshomaru might be the Great Dog Lord's son, but his character was much more like his mother's, arrogant and cold, and he had no use for fleas.

Miroku and Sango may have been far too young to remember Myoga's past, but Sango's cat, Kirara, was much more open-minded about fleas than Sesshomaru, and Myoga shared some of Miroku's tastes in vices. Miroku never really noticed the small drain on his sake and plum wine when Myoga occasionally indulged. It was fairly cozy until the day he woke up on Kirara's tail to find himself on an ogre hunt.

He had to admit he had been hitting the sake a little hard lately; he had totally missed the preparations, and there didn't seem to be much hope of getting somewhere more secure quickly. He decided to ride out the job, then pick better sleeping quarters in the future. That decision held until Sango and Kirara were swatted into the cliff and he bailed off into the rocks. That was when he decided he really did prefer dog blood to cat blood. Maybe he would visit his old host and friend InuYasha.

Now, though, he was having second thoughts. InuYasha and Kagome were talking in the main room of the house; InuYasha had been very angry the last time he had seen Myoga, hearing his voice was recalling that memory vividly, so he hopped into the bedroom and looked for a fast hiding place until he could find a really secure hole. He thought it might be better to stay here unannounced. There was a basket in the middle of the bedroom with cloths piled in it; that should be perfect.

Myoga jumped to the lip of the basket for a quick look in before he chose his hiding spot. As he stood balanced on the lip, a small hand shot out of the basket and snatched him, pulling him in for a close inspection. He had a brief look at a pair of golden eyes, a view up a pair of nostrils as he was sniffed, then he was shoved at a wet tongue in the open mouth of a baby.

He slipped out of the baby's unsure grasp and hopped frantically around the basket, hotly pursued by the lightning fast little hand. The baby crowed and giggled with delight at the game, then caught him again. From the main room, he heard InuYasha say, "What the hell has he gotten into this time?"

Panicking, he screamed and yelled, "InuYasha-sama, InuYasha-sama! Oh, please, save me InuYasha-sama! I don't want to be eaten! Oh, InuYasha-sama!"

Myoga heard InuYasha and Kagome entered the room, then InuYasha say, "He's got something."

InuYasha pried open the baby's hand and held up the bedraggled flea. "Why, Myoga! Fancy meeting you here," he grinned. "I see you've met my son."

"Yo...you...That's your son?!" Myoga peered anxiously at the baby now held in Kagome's arms. The baby caught sight of him again and lunged, reaching out for another grab at Myoga. Myoga thrashed free of InuYasha's grasp and shot up his sleeve to emerge again at his collar, a safe distance away. From this vantage point, he peered around the fabric at the child.

Yes, it had to be InuYasha's son, with those golden eyes and the dog's ears pricking out through his fuzzy black hair, but sweet merciful heaven, that child was a charge of lightning looking for a place to strike. InuYasha had been an active little boy, but nothing like this. He was getting too old for this.

"So, Myoga," InuYasha asked drily, "what brings you here?"

Myoga looked unhappily back at InuYasha. He had lost any hope of hiding now. He wondered what InuYasha's attitude was now that well over a year had passed. Married life was agreeing with InuYasha; he was still slim and hard, but there was now a sleek, well-kept air about him. He had a hint of a soft mustache and beard around his lips and his arms and chest had filled out, replacing the rangy, boyish figure with that of a powerful young man. His hair was brushed and trimmed, his clothes fresh and clean, his posture much more relaxed. He was thoroughly enjoying Myoga's discomfiture, but Myoga could not detect any malice under it.

"Well, er, I just thought it might be nice to see how my old friend and master is doing," Myoga demurred.

"Uh-huh." InuYasha did not sound convinced. "And you chose to do this by sneaking in?"

"Well, I, uh, I wasn't really sure, uh, how happy you would be to see me." Myoga faltered.

"He's got you there." Kagome commented.

"Yeah, maybe," InuYasha snorted, considering Myoga's well known lack of guts. "Buy why now, when, as he admits, he wasn't sure of his welcome? That is most un-Myoga-like." He stared at Myoga, waiting for an answer.

But Myoga had gone about as far as his nerve would take him; he really didn't want to confess he had bailed out on Miroku and Sango in the middle of a fight.

InuYasha waited, staring at the flinching flea until he was sure no answer was forthcoming, then he plucked Myoga off his shoulder and dangled him just out of the baby's eager reach.

" I, uh, I just wanted to be someplace nice and quiet," Myoga yelped as he tried to wiggle free of InuYasha's grasp.

"So where were you that wasn't nice and quiet?"

"Um, well,..." InuYasha pushed the squirming Myoga a bit closer to the baby, "Oooh, Sango and Kirara were fighting an ogre when it got to dangerous for my blood."

"Fighting an ogre!" Kagome exclaimed. "What happened? Are they all right?"

"And you ditched them in the middle of the fight," added InuYasha. "You know, I really should feed you to Tsuchiya."

"Ohh, don't do that, InuYasha-sama," Myoga wailed, "I'll, uh, probably give him an upset stomach."

"Considering you're already giving me one..." InuYasha agreed. "Myoga, what am I going to do with you?"

--------------------

It may have been the herbs, perhaps it was being in her own house with her family around her, in any case, Sango recovered quickly after she and Miroku returned home. Her jaw tightened when he told her about how their employer had treated them, and she approved of his foray into the castle to take what was owed them, including the penalty strings of pearls. Grim satisfaction blazed in her eyes as Miroku fastened a pearl and coral necklace around her neck. He didn't tell her about the mirror he had carefully wrapped and secreted in a corner of the rafters.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei was not satisfied with the development of his anchor. It still did not have enough substance to root as firmly into the gamefield as he would like. The man at the core was the best he could hope for in a mortal, but he needed more. His opponent's anchor had a mortal and a hanyou at the core, who had some potent magic at their disposal. A good dose of magic couldn't hurt, perhaps some artifact his man could use to enhance his power. He would have to search...

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	16. Chapter 16 Hell on Training Wheels

Chapter 16 - Hell on Training Wheels

It was once again Shippo's turn to watch Tsuchiya; he was curled up in the main room, luxuriating in a sleepy May afternoon while Tsuchiya was down for his nap. He could usually count on half an hour of quiet before the fun started. He lazily ran through in his mind the array of toys and tricks he had arranged for when things got lively. It was the usual stuff, but Tsuchiya wasn't finding it boring yet, so there was no reason to change it.

Shippo yawned and stretched, contemplating getting up to have a peek, then decided against it. There was no noise coming from the bedroom; it was best to let the sleeping dog-baby lie. He snuggled more comfortably on his cushion, dozing, his ears open for any sound of activity in the bedroom that signaled his call to duty.

Time passed in the lazy afternoon; Shippo hadn't had an afternoon this quiet in ages. It was wonderful, it was delicious, it was... it was too damned long! He started fully awake. There was absolutely no way that Tsuchiya could still be asleep. The moon was just as likely to fall from the sky.

Shippo crept quietly into InuYasha and Kagome's bedroom, praying that, just once, he was wrong and Tsuchiya was truly still asleep. The bedroom, when he got there, was ransacked; all of Kagome's belongings were strewn throughout the room and the bedclothes were pulled from their chest and lay in a heap in the corner. Tsuchiya's basket was tipped on its side in the middle of the room, its blankets spilling out in a stream from the top. In a daze, he peered into Tsuchiya's basket and nearly had a heart attack when he found it empty.

"Tsuchiya?" Shippo cried, looking around the room, "Please tell me you're here!"

The pile of bedclothes rippled, then Tsuchiya's bottom emerged as he backed out from under the pile and he plopped down in a sitting position, holding Kagome's hairbrush. He grinned at Shippo, very proud of himself, then started chewing on the handle of his prize.

"Oh, man, your mama is going to have a fit when she sees this," Shippo moaned, looking at the mess. He looked around hopelessly, then started gathering the bottles and jars of toiletries back into their basket.

"Ah?" Tsuchiya looked at him, perplexed, then crawled into the main room toward the wall alcove which held the household shrine. There were loads of very interesting things on its shelves he had been wanting to inspect for ages: a small bronze statue of Amida Buddha, a shiny brass incense burner, a colorful plate for offerings, pictures, some of the leaves Shippo favored for his transformations; right now, a vase with a peony also graced it.

"Whoa! No!" Shippo yelped, jumping after him. "It's already bad enough without ticking off the ancestors!" He caught him and dragged him back into the bedroom so he could keep an eye on him while he tidied up.

Tsuchiya pouted for a bit, then decided there was still plenty of interesting stuff in the bedroom to inspect. He started with the basket Shippo was filling. While Shippo was under the table chasing down the last couple of bottles of shampoo and a comb, Tsuchiya pulled out a bottle of lotion and got it open. The lotion dribbled down his front and onto the floor when he turned the bottle upside down. He played with the puddle for a while, squishing it into the tatami mat, then took out a tube of toothpaste and squeezed hard; the top popped open and the toothpaste squirted out all over his hand. The minty smell intrigued him. He patted at it, then smeared it on his face, hair and the basket in front of him.

"Hey! No! Oh, mannn." Shippo was back with the shampoo bottles and looking at the new catastrophe. He quickly tossed his last few items into the basket, along with the lotion and toothpaste and carried the basket to the porch, then returned to deal with Tsuchiya. By now, Tsuchiya was back into the bedclothes, a trail of lotion and toothpaste marked where he had been.

Shippo winced, then bundled up the comforter and took it to the porch too. This time he made it back before Tsuchiya could slime anything else. He stripped off his shirt and grabbed a washcloth, then hauled him into the main room and, dipping the cloth into the water bucket, started swabbing him off. Tsuchiya howled in protest at the cleaning. Shippo took him back to the bedroom and handed him a cracker when they were done, mollifying him.

Tsuchiya sat sucking on his cracker, quiet for the moment, so Shippo went back to trying to tidy up the room. He picked up Kagome's scattered clothes and sorted them, folding as he went. He looked up when a crash from the main room told him Tsuchiya was on the prowl again.

Shippo darted into the main room and found Tsuchiya in the middle of a pile of broken stoneware plates and cups; he had just dumped the crockery shelf and was sitting back up to make another assault on the shelving. Shippo thanked the gods that the workmen had had the foresight to fasten the shelving to the wall. He pulled Tsuchiya free, then grabbed an empty bucket and started putting the broken pieces of crockery in it. Tsuchiya sat beside him, handing him pieces and clapping his hands as the shards clinked and clonked musically into the bucket. Shippo managed to salvage a few pieces that were only chipped. He got up to fetch the broom for the last of it.

While he was gone, Tsuchiya looked around. The shadowy doorway into the storeroom, a forbidden zone, beckoned. He crawled into the storeroom, with its cool dark interior and intriguing aromas and looked around. He started on the right, but the large canisters lining that wall were much too large for him to shift and too tall to reach into. The shelves on the other side looked more promising, with their neat arrays of boxes and jars.

Soon he had pulled himself up and was balanced, half-draped on a shelf, reaching as far back as he could for a crockery jar. The jar was tantalizingly just within reach. He wiggled and squirmed, then hooked a claw into the jar's handle. The jar slid toward him as he pulled in his arm. He leaned back and wrapped both hands around the jar, then lost his balance and fell over backward. Both he and the jar tumbled to the floor, the lid of the jar flying off on impact. A light-colored powder spilled out of the jar.

Tsuchiya rolled over and grabbed a handful of the powder, sniffing it and licking it. Both his nose and his mouth exploded from the powerful flavor of the powder. Crying with surprise and pain, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Now they were on fire too. He screamed.

Shippo bolted into the room and took one look. "Oh, great, you had to find the wasabi, didn't you?" he said, hustling Tsuchiya out of the room and swabbing him again with the wet washcloth. Finally the burning sensation went away and Tsuchiya calmed to soft sniffles and hiccups.

Shippo sighed and returned to the storeroom, broom in hand, to clean up the wasabi.

Tsuchiya sat a while longer, slightly sobered by the last experience; it appeared some of the things in the house could hurt. He recovered from the revelation quickly. There were still far too many things in the house he had never had a chance to explore. He looked toward the hearth. It was always warm and comforting beside it. Mama and Papa would hold him in their laps there in the evening. he had always wondered about the yellow lights that danced, flickering, on the wood and the softly gray lumps that glowed red at night and had smoke drifting away from them in curling tendrils. It was time to find out.

Shippo dropped the broom at the first howl and dashed back into the main room. Hauling Tsuchiya out of the fire, he dusted off the ashes and embers and slapped the cool, wet washcloth on his burned hands. Tsuchiya continues screaming; the hurt wasn't going away this time, it just kept hurting and hurting...

"Tell you what," Shippo said grimly as he resoaked the washcloth and wrapped it around Tsuchiya's hands again, "since you seem so bent on finding the biggest messes in the house, we're going to sit on the porch until your mama gets home. Come on." He dragged Tsuchiya out to the porch and sat right beside him to wait.

InuYasha and Kagome arrived home at the same time, InuYasha from checking the borders and Kagome from her miko lessons. They saw Shippo still on the porch with a sniffling Tsuchiya beside him; Shippo was dabbing at Tsuchiya's hands with a wet cloth. Shippo looked up as the stepped onto the porch, an inhuman calm in his face.

Kagome looked at him with alarm. "Shippo?..." she asked tentatively.

InuYasha took a quick peek into the house and said, "Whoa!"

"The world as we know it has come to an end," Shippo announced calmly from some numb place beyond the edge of hysteria, "He's crawling."

-------------------

Kagome and InuYasha had very different reactions to Tsuchiya's newfound mobility. Kagome was terrified by Tsuchiya's heedless enthusiasm; she was convinced he would find a way to kill himself very quickly if she didn't keep him safely penned. InuYasha believed the sooner the boy knew his limits, the better. He took him into the forest and gave him obstacles to try himself on, rocks to climb, logs to navigate, holes to cross, always just big enough to scare him if he failed, but not big enough to hurt him. Tsuchiya loved these excursions, coming back from them worn out and happy.

Kagome wasn't quite so sure of the wisdom of this. It was spurring Tsuchiya to ever greater heights of mischief when he was home. She seemed to spend her days plucking him off shelves and fishing him out of chests and boxes. She had nightmares over where she could safely keep the kitchen knives. He handily got around every gate or barrier she could devise. Finally, in desperation, she turned to magic, erecting barrier spells around the things that really had her worried.

InuYasha found out the hard way when he went to the kitchen to get a tea mug and was blasted across the room into the far corner. He landed against the large urn they used as a cistern, knocking it over and flooding the room. Buckets tumbled from the shelf above onto his head and lap.

"Kagome!" he bellowed, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

She had dashed out of the storeroom when he hit the wall and now stood staring at the mess with her hands at her mouth. "Ohh, no! I'm sorry! I put a barrier around the knife box. You must have brushed against it."

He gaped at her. "A barr... Don't you think that was a bit strong?"

"Umm, well," she dithered, "I can't really tell how strong it is until something fires it off." She pulled the buckets off him and put them away as InuYasha righted the urn.

"Guy isn't even safe in his own house," he grumbled as the last bucket was put away. Kagome cringed.

"You better tone that barrier down," he added seriously. "It'll probably throw Tsuchiya or Shippo halfway across the forest."

"Um, yeah..." Kagome flinched again and took down the knife box to rework the spell.

-------------------

Sota looked up from his homework as the back door clattered open. Kagome and InuYasha entered the house, looking exhausted as usual. Kagome was carrying a wide-awake and very wiggly Tsuchiya. InuYasha dropped the bag he was carrying near the door and collapsed into the couch, groaning.

Tsuchiya squealed when he saw Sota and started trying to kick free of his mother. Sota got up quickly, grinning. He took the boy and swooped him around a couple of times, tossed him and caught him in a hug when he came down. Tsuchiya squealed with laughter and chomped Sota's nose.

"Ow! When did that start?" Sota yelped, tickling Tsuchiya's ribs to make him let go.

"A couple of weeks ago," Kagome replied. "InuYasha's been catching the brunt of it."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You know how much Tsuchiya loves pouncing on moving things? Well, he absolutely cannot resist InuYasha's ears," Kagome explained.

InuYasha flattened his ears and growled, giving his son a surly look, as Sota swallowed a laugh and tried to look sympathetic.

"I'll bet you did the same thing to your own dad," Sota said.

"Shut up!" InuYasha closed his eyes, scowling, and dropped out of the conversation.

Mama looked from the kitchen into the living room. "Oh, I thought I heard you come in," she said. Catching sight of InuYasha, she added, "Asleep already?"

InuYasha opened one eye and jabbed a finger at Tsuchiya. "For the last two weeks straight, that brat has woken me up at the crack of dawn by chomping on my ears!" His eye slid closed again.

Sota bit his lip to keep from laughing as Mama looked at Kagome in concern.

"Don't you have him in his own bed?" she asked.

"He can get out of anything I put him in," Kagome sighed. "It's not like we haven't tried. He's crawling now, and climbing, and he's driving me absolutely crazy."

Sota did laugh this time. "Nee-chan, he's been 'driving you absolutely crazy' since he was three days old!"

Kagome considered for a moment. "Actually, it took him about a week."

Sota grinned and rolled his eyes.

Attracted by the noise, Grampa turned into the room. While he still wasn't sure whether or not he approved of InuYasha, he wasn't letting that impair his enjoyment of his great-grandson.

"Careful, Grampa, he's started biting!" Kagome cautioned, a little too late as Tsuchiya clamped down on Grampa's finger.

"He has teeth, too," the old man related, carefully extricating his hand.

"How many?" queried Sota, peering into Tsuchiya's mouth.

"Eight," said InuYasha, "And his fangs are just coming in."

"Yeah, I guess you'd be the one to know, " commented Sota.

That earned Sota a surly look. InuYasha flicked his ears a few times irritably and shuddered.

Tsuchiya started squirming in Sota's arms. Bouncing didn't settle him; it was quite apparent he wanted down. Sota put him down on the floor. The baby sat a moment, considering his options, then started crawling toward his father. Reaching the couch, he dug in his claws and pulled himself onto the seat, then started working his way up InuYasha's chest. InuYasha grimaced and pulled his ears as flat to his head as he could.

"Not again," he groaned. Tsuchiya cackled and tried to pounce, but InuYasha plucked him up and held him at arm's length.

"That's enough!" he growled, putting the boy back on the floor.

Tsuchiya looked momentarily put out at having his favorite toy removed, then Sota wiggled his foot. He happily launched himself at the new target.

"Why don't you go upstairs for a nap, dear?" Mama suggested to InuYasha. "Close the door behind you."

He thought about it a minute, then got up and padded upstairs.

"How about you?" Mama asked Kagome.

"I'll hold out until he eats again," Kagome replied.

After a couple of hours of watching Tsuchiya explore the house, the Higurashis could see why Kagome was "going absolutely crazy". In that time, he had climbed onto all the furniture, knocked over two lamps, pulled the comforters off three beds, strewn the contents of each bottom drawer and shelf in the house everywhere, been fished out of the toilet twice, been snatched away from five electrical outlets and caught chewing an electrical cord once, pulled a set of drapes from the wall, destroyed a couple of sheets of Sota's homework and thoroughly terrorized the family cat who took refuge on top of a tall bookshelf. He was clearly contemplating an assault on Mount Bookshelf when Kagome scooped him up and checked his diaper.

"I thought so," she said, peering inside. "Let's leave poor old Buyo alone for a while and change your pants." Ignoring Tsuchiya's protests, Kagome hauled him off and changed him. By then, he had noticed he was hungry. The family took a breather while he nursed.

"That is the busiest child I have ever seen," Mama said. "How are you going to manage when he starts walking?"

Kagome shuddered. "I've been trying not to think about that."

Tsuchiya's eyes drifted closed as she burped him and he fell asleep.

"Let's see if we get really lucky," Kagome whispered, walking to the little crib that had been set up in Mama's room and laying him down. They watched him for a minute, then tiptoed from the room and closed the door quietly. Kagome slipped off to join InuYasha for a nap.

About an hour later, Mama was putting away cooking pans when something grabbed her leg suddenly and bit her ankle. She yelled and dropped the pans which all landed with a resounding crash. Tsuchiya started crying behind her.

In the living room, Sota was treated to the spectacle of InuYasha vaulting the bannister then reaching the kitchen in two leaps.

"He's all right, dear. He just startled me," Mama gasped, recovering from the surprise attack.

InuYasha scooped Tsuchiya up and hauled him out the room, scowling and muttering, "Let's find something else for you to do."

Tsuchiya gurgled happily and took a swipe at his father's ears, which were twitching irritably.

"I'll take him," Sota volunteered. "My homework is done and I'm free now."

InuYasha handed him over and returned upstairs. Sota dedicated the rest of the day to wearing Tsuchiya out. They had fun at dinner giving him tiny bits of food and watching his expression as he sucked on the more pungent bits. Kagome came downstairs long enough to give him his last feeding and eat a bit herself, then she vanished again. It was a tired lot that went to bed that night.

-------------------

It was still dark when a loud yelp and a stream of cursing emerged from the room InuYasha and Kagome were sharing. Sota looked out his window blearily; it was the crack of dawn. He got up, wondering what was up with InuYasha. InuYasha met him on the landing, carrying Tsuchiya and rubbing his ear.

"But we left him in..." Sota pointed to the room where the crib was set up, astonished that InuYasha's story had been no exaggeration.

InuYasha's jaw was set, his temper simmering ominously. "It doesn't make a damned bit of difference," he growled.

"Dude, you are living dangerously," Sota told his nephew. "One of these days, your pa is going to lose it and send you into orbit."

Tsuchiya grinned engagingly and snuggled in his father's arms, then started climbing up toward the ears again. Kagome emerged from the bedroom dressed in a robe, kissed InuYasha and relieved him of the baby. She disappeared back into their room. InuYasha watched her go, looking slightly stunned, as he generally did whenever she kissed him.

"Hey, we saved you some food if you're getting hungry," Sota offered.

"That sounds good," InuYasha said, perking up.

Sota pulled the food from the fridge and reheated it in the microwave. InuYasha sniffed it over suspiciously before trying anything.

"There's nothing spicy," Sota laughed. "We got that figured out a long time ago.

"Hmph!" InuYasha did not look convinced. He was still carefully testing the food when Kagome came downstairs with a cleaned-up Tsuchiya.

"Poisoning him again, Sota?" she asked as she settled down to feed Tsuchiya.

"Oh, yeah," Sota answered, "This time I put it in the buns."

InuYasha glowered at them, growling slightly.

"You're being silly," Kagome declared. "When was the last time we tried to feed you anything spicy?"

"Keh!" InuYasha continued to squint and sniff at the food for a while longer. Eventually, he did get around to eating it. Finishing, he told Kagome he was going to make an appearance back home for an hour or two.

Tsuchiya finished nursing then surveyed the room with interest. He brightened on seeing Sota and climbed off the couch to follow him. Sota played with him until it was time to go the school. By then, Mama and Grampa had joined them. Grampa took a turn at chasing Tsuchiya for a while, but tired quickly. Kagome took over after that.

InuYasha returned around noon and scooped up Tsuchiya from the couch where he had been busy trying to pull the buttons off the upholstery, and sat him on his shoulders. Kagome turned from resetting the curtains Tsuchiya had just pulled down and raised her eyebrows at where Tsuchiya was sitting.

"Feeling brave are you?" she asked, seeing where the baby was sitting.

"He won't be there long," InuYasha replied. "I'll take him outside and see how he likes climbing the steps."

"How are things at home?" Kagome asked.

"Real quiet. We can take our time here. Why don't you take a break? I'll manage him for the afternoon."

"After I have the curtains back up," she said, returning to slipping the hooks into the glides.

1


	17. Chapter 17 The NExt Step

Chapter 17 - The Next Step 

The beginning of July brought with it the excitement of the wild plum harvest.

Aiko had a standing agreement with the children; for every basket of plums they brought her, she would make them a crock of pickled plums. It made for a very merry week out of the year; the boys all got to show off their daring and prowess by climbing to the tops of the trees for the most succulent plums, the girls shouted encouragement and flirted to get plums for their baskets and everyone got deliciously sticky eating their fill of the ripe and over-ripe fruit.

InuYasha and Shippo were out in the forest with the children, keeping an eye on the surroundings, though there hadn't been any trouble for quite a while. InuYasha parked himself under a tree for a light nap; he had learned to take any chance for a few Zs that offered itself. Shippo joined the boys in the trees, though he ate more fruit than he brought down.

InuYasha dozed comfortably in the heat, listening to the happy chattering and laughter of the children all around him. After a while he became aware of a set of eyes drilling into him. He opened an eye and found himself surrounded by three girls, about eight years old, who were looking at him with immense disapproval.

"Yes?" he asked, his tone implying he did not want to be disturbed.

"It's not sleeping time." Ayame, the girl on the left said firmly.

"I wasn't exactly sleeping," InuYasha protested, thinking she was criticizing his watchfulness.

"You're not exactly working either," Ume, the center girl remarked.

"Who says I'm not working?"

"So, where's your plums?" demanded Ayame.

"Now, wait a minute," InuYasha protested, "Picking plums is your work. I keep away the bad guys."

"Well I think you can pick plums seeing as there aren't any bad guys around," Tsutsuji, the last girl, said.

InuYasha looked from one stubborn little face to the next. "There are plenty of you to pick plums, if you'll quit bugging me and just get to it," he declared. He stared back, arms folded, challenging them to do something about it.

The girls exchanged glances, then put down their baskets; two of them started hauling on his arms and the third one got behind his back and started pushing. They weren't making much progress, but at the same time, he wasn't getting much sleep. Were eight year old girls always this bossy? Suddenly, he was grateful Tsuchiya was a boy; one woman telling him what to do with his life was enough. He rolled to his feet and leapt into the tree, settling onto a branch out of reach, then glanced down to see what they'd do next.

They stared up at him, stymied for the moment, but not ready to give up the fight yet. After a whispered consultation, they spread out, then started pelting him with squishy overripe plums.

"Hey!" InuYasha sat up in his branch and started catching the plums that got too close and winging them back at the girls. It didn't take long for the nearest boys to catch on that there was a plum fight in progress. Plums started flying in all directions.

Meanwhile, Kagome, who had been too far along in her pregnancy last year to participate, was well in the thick of it in the village square. Kagome and the other women with babies and toddlers washed crocks and jugs and sorted the baskets as they came in into groups for pickling, making plum wine and culls for the livestock. A pair of sturdy men stood by to man the press for the wine plums. Aiko darted about, briskly inspecting progress and gathering her salts, herbs, vinegars, syrups and starters for the packaging frenzy.

Tsuchiya was very happily playing in a mud puddle at the edge of the activity with three other toddlers. He grabbed handfuls of mud to enjoy the sensation of squishing it through his fingers and slapped at the water to see how far the splash would go. One of the other babies screamed and started crying. Tsuchiya looked over to see what the fuss was; the other baby was wiping her face which was splattered with muddy water. How had that happened?

The other little boy in the group stood up and walked to his mother to show her the mud. Tsuchiya watched him walk. He could do that. Actually, he could almost do that. He could get onto his feet, there was just this balance problem when he picked up a foot to take a step. Inspired, he got his feet placed and pushed off to stand up. He stood, wobbling slightly, then settled into balance. OK. Now. He picked up a foot and put it down quickly in front of him, teetered and landed on his bottom. Oh, well, just like always. He got back on his feet. His balance listed a bit to the left and he moved his feet to counter it, staggering drunkenly through six or seven steps, then landed on his bottom again. Whoa! Cool! With refreshed determination, he got back on his feet. He looked around and chose a target, a big rock a few feet away. Leaning slightly forward, he marched toward the rock in a slightly accelerating pace until he ran into the rock, grabbing its top to steady himself as he stopped.

Exhilarated, Tsuchiya clung to the rock and bounced excitedly. That was more fun than he thought. What next? Well, there was the crocks beside the mommies. They sure were busy with them. He wanted to see what they were doing. He took aim and plunged toward the crocks, listing a bit to the right as he went, so that he ended up at the far side of the cluster instead of in the middle. That was OK. He could still see what was going on. He looked into the crocks. They were all clean and empty. That was pretty boring. He looked around the work area and saw a bench laden with other crocks and jugs. Interesting smells were coming from the area of the bench. He wandered over for a look. This was much better. There were baskets with purple leaves in them, jugs of vinegar and barley syrup, a big crock full of sparkling salt, and at the end of the bench, crocks full of plums swimming in vinegar syrup with the purple leaves floating in the stew with them. It looked pretty, but he thought a bit more color would be better.

He liked the way the salt sparkled. What would it look like if he put some on top? He grabbed an handful of salt and dumped it into a crock. It got wet and dull, then sank out of sight. That was disappointing. He tried another handful and it did it again. Now what? He looked across the square and saw a cluster of dandelions blooming nearby. The bright yellow flowers caught his fancy. He walked over and pulled loose a few of the flowers then ran back to the bench. Which crock had he been playing with? It didn't really matter. They all looked the same. He dropped his flowers into a crock and admired their bright yellow floating in the purple of the pickle. That was good. Could he make it better? He saw some light green foxtails growing in another nearby clump. He ran to the foxtails, plucked some of them and ran back, dumping them in with the dandelions. He really liked that. Getting excited, he looked around for something else. Another clump of dandelions, this one with fluffy white seed heads, beckoned. He ran over and plucked them, then ran back, loose seeds drifting in his wake. He was just pulling the fluff loose and sprinkling them in the crock when he was grabbed from behind, scolded, and hauled to his mother.

"You'll be wanting this," Aiko-san said as she placed him in front of his mother.

Kagome looked up from the crock she was scrubbing to see her mud-smeared boy with dandelion fluff stuck in his hair standing in front of her. "Oh!" She looked up at Aiko in consternation. "Um, what was he...?"

Aiko closed her eyes and massaged the knots in her temples. "He's been running back and forth loading the crocks with who knows what while I wasn't looking."

"Running...?" Kagome echoed faintly. Aiko nodded.

Saito appeared just then, looking for Kagome. "You might want to go collect your husband," he said, chuckling.

"Oh! What was he...?" Suddenly, she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"He's rather the worse for wear from being at the losing end of a plum fight."

-------------------

To nobody's surprise, InuYasha and Kagome experienced another parental meltdown shortly after Tsuchiya was walking. It was about two days away from the new moon when they realized they were losing it again.

InuYasha had a brainwave; the day of the year coincided between the two times, but the moon cycle did not. "Let's wait another day before we go to Mama's," he proposed. "That way, I'll spend the night of the new moon over there and can come back in a couple of days without having to deal with it."

It was a stretch, but Kagome agreed.

So, what was he doing back home? InuYasha stood at the threshold of the door in the hot August sun and stared into the house. Slowly, his bleary mind recalled the errand. They had forgotten something. Something about Tsuchiya. What...? Oh, yeah. The monkey. The little rag-doll monkey he had gotten for his birthday. Right. InuYasha sighed. It could be anywhere. Tsuchiya adored the monkey and dragged it around everywhere. While there was no guarantee he would go to sleep if he had it, it was dead sure he would not go to sleep without it. So InuYasha had to find it.

"Shippo?" he called looking around. There was no answer. He didn't really blame the little fox for skipping out. Still, help looking for the stupid monkey would have been nice. Kagome's housekeeping standards always sagged badly just before a meltdown. The degree of disarray in the house was becoming oppressive. Sighing again, he prepared to tackle the job.

"InuYasha-sama! You're here! You heard!" Turning from the doorway, InuYasha saw three of the village men top the stairs and come running to the house.

"What happened?"

"We got hit just after you and Kagome-sama left. Horse thieves!"

"Who?" If those boys from the next village over were pulling stunts again, he could give it a day, then go collect the horses after they'd had their fun. They'd have bragging rights, at least until next time.

"I've never seen them before. A small band of brigands, looked pretty scruffy. But they seemed to know you were gone."

Awww damn. He couldn't let this sit. By the time he got back a couple of days from now, the horses would be so far gone he'd never find them. Still, something was nagging him that now was a really bad time to chase after them. He just couldn't remember why.

It was midafternoon. If he was really quick, he should be able to catch up to them, retrieve the horses, and still be back in time for dinner. "Which way did they go?" he asked, resigned. He left a brief note in case Kagome came looking for him.

The trail picked up on the far side of the village. For some reason, he was having trouble picking up the scent. Must be getting too tired and befuddled, he decided. The trail was still easily visible, so he set off after the thieves, running.

They did have a couple of hours start on him and they had made good use of the time. InuYasha did not catch up with them until they stopped in a hidden grove to camp as evening approached.

The horses were tied to stakes, with three guards watching them. The remainder of the band was very close by, working on the fire and starting up dinner. It was going to be a bit of a scramble to get in there and cut all the horses loose before he was stuck in a fight. If he waited until it was darker, when he could see better than they could, it would be a lot easier. He drew back and scouted around the camp to choose the best approach. The sun was just touching the top of a hill in its evening descent when he struck. He darted into the camp with the sun at his back, cut all the horses free with his claws, then turned to disable the guards before he took off. At that point, the last of the sun slid behind the hill and InuYasha felt his transformation into an ordinary human.

Shit! That was what had been nagging at him. And just as the guards caught on to his presence.

"Hey! Some kid is after the horses!"

All the men around the fire grabbed their weapons and ran to join their comrades in the fight. A jolt of adrenalin woke InuYasha up sharply; time to improvise: his sword was useless, his hide was vulnerable and he was just about to get skewered. He vaulted onto the back of one of the horses, the gelding from his village that was infamous for heading back to the stable at any hint of an opportunity. At least something was working right. He kicked him sharply in the ribs and pointed his head toward home, trusting him to take the hint. Realizing he had his head, the horse bolted toward home and hay; the rest of the horses followed the leader.

Inuyasha looked back at the rest of the horses as they galloped down the road. He wasn't getting out of it completely clean; two of the thieves had managed to get on horseback and were maneuvering to get beside him. Ah, hell! He wasn't really much of a horseman and he was riding bareback with just a lead rope for reins. Normally, this wasn't an issue, but now... He did at least still have his superb sense of balance and the other men were just as handicapped as he was for horse equipment. They, though, had regular swords drawn and were closing in to finish him off. He drew his own sword to fend them off.

The thieves knew what they were doing; as they closed with InuYasha, they split so they could approach him on each side simultaneously, then sandwich him between them. His horse wasn't all that fast; he couldn't just outrun them. What did that leave? He grabbed the horse's bridle and pulled back hard, leaning back at the same time. The horse dug in for a fast stop and the thieves shot past him. InuYasha kicked his horse again; now he was behind them. He used his sword as a club to knock them off their horses, then resumed leading the herd back to the village.

A couple of hours later, InuYasha arrived back at the village and headed the horses toward the paddock beside the stable. The noise of his arrival brought Saito and Eiichi out of their houses to check things out.

"It's the horses!" Saito cried, as they ran out to help pen them up.

"But where's InuYasha?" Eiichi said, looking at the dark hair and eyes of a young man he did not recognize on the lead horse. Inuyasha gave him a withering look, then slid off the horse and led it into the paddock. The other horses followed, happy to be back at the source of the hay.

Saito looked at his stiff, offended back, watching him closely. "I don't know what's going on, but that's InuYasha. No one else moves like that."

Eiichi stared closer. If you discounted the hair and the eye color, the normal man's ears... This man was the same height and weight as InuYasha, his face the same shape, the clothes the same... InuYasha stared back, his direct angry gaze drilling into Eiichi as the InuYasha he knew so often did.

"If you've looked long enough, I think I'll leave now. It's been a long day."

Yes, that was InuYasha's voice, the aggressive tenor with the overlay of arrogance, and under it, the weary knowledge that he was too uncanny to be ever fully accepted. He had startled them again today. He chose not to comment further, leaving them to their speculations.

He climbed the hill and took the path back to the well. Once at the well, he paused and looked into it for a while. He had never tried to jump through in this state. He wondered if it would work.

-------------------

He jumped out of the well into the well house at the Higurashi Shrine. He had made it and he was back to being hanyou. He sat on the stairs for a moment, just enjoying not moving. The weather on this side of the well was even hotter than what he had left behind and he found himself dozing off where he sat. He shook himself awake, left the well building and walked to the house. It was now after dark, all the visitors to the shrine had long since left. InuYasha could smell the remains of dinner coming from the house and his stomach rumbled loudly in anticipation. He hadn't eaten since morning, and after the excitement of the afternoon and evening, he was feeling it. Maybe he could squeeze in a bite or two before he collapsed.

He opened the side door and stepped into the living room. Sota was sitting at the low table, working on some summer school project, Grampa was dozing on the couch and Tsuchiya had squeezed himself half under a chair trying to reach something in the back corner. He could hear Mama working in the kitchen.

Sota looked up from his project and said, "Oh, man, you look beat."

InuYasha grunted an acknowledgment and looked blearily for a good place to sit. He decided to sit at the table opposite Sota; it was closest.

Mama popped her head through the kitchen door to say, "I saved you some dinner, dear. I'll bring it right out."

Whatever it was Tsuchiya was digging for, he finally got it. He squealed triumphantly and scooted backward from under the chair.

"Baah!" he said, looking at the object intently. He looked a bit disappointed and shook the object.

Food suddenly appeared in front of InuYasha, startling him slightly. He must have been starting to doze off again. Oh, man. He nodded his thanks, picked up the chopsticks and started into the food methodically. He perked up slightly as the food settled into his system; at least he was now approaching a comfortable level of tired.

Whack! He got a sudden smack to the back of his head, making his eyes unfocus momentarily.

"Baah!" Tsuchiya squealed happily.

InuYasha turned around to see his son proudly holding up a ball that flashed colored lights inside it.

"Tsuchiya, not on your papa's head," Sota groaned. "Bounce it."

Tsuchiya pumped the ball up and down vigorously, but did not release it. "Baah!" The lights ran down. He shook the ball again, trying to get the lights going.

Sota lunged and got the ball from him, then bounced it across the floor. The lights flared again and Tsuchiya scampered after it. He got tangled up around Grampa's legs fetching it, then banged the ball down hard on Grampa's knee.

"Oooaugh!" The old man jolted awake and looked at his gleefully grinning great grandson, who was waving the once again flashing ball.

"Baah!" Tsuchiya crowed.

"Sota, I am not altogether certain that was one of your better ideas," Grampa harrumphed.

"Sorry, Grampa," Sota said. To InuYasha, he added, "We had him busy all afternoon chasing it. It was a great idea then."

InuYasha snorted. Nothing stayed a great idea for long around Tsuchiya; the boy's capacity for chaos was unbelievable. He returned his attention to the food. Tsuchiya slammed into him from behind then squirmed into his lap. He could not have been more in the way if he tried. InuYasha tried to settle him to one side of his lap so he could continue to eat, but Tsuchiya kept grabbing at the chopsticks as they passed, knocking food all over.

InuYasha was on the verge of snapping when Mama swooped out of the kitchen and grabbed Tsuchiya, saying, "Bath time, Tsuchiya!"

Tsuchiya squealed a protest that Mama ignored as she carried him to the bathroom. Shortly afterward, the bathroom rang with squeals, giggles and a tremendous amount of splashing. InuYasha was just finishing his food when Tsuchiya burst out of the bathroom draped in a towel and giggling madly as he pounced on Sota. Sota wrapped him tightly in the towel and tickled him.

"The bath is yours, dear," Mama said, coming out of the bathroom after Tsuchiya completely drenched. "If you leave your clothes I'll have them clean for you tomorrow morning."

He must be getting civilized, he thought. It actually sounded good to clean up a bit.

"Thanks. Maybe I'll do that," he said, getting up and making his escape while Tsuchiya was still all tangled up in his towel.

There was a dry robe hanging in the bathroom when he got there. Perfect. He stripped and left his clothes near the door, then quickly scrubbed off. He passed on the bath; he'd probably fall asleep and drown himself. Finishing, he slipped on the robe, grabbed his sword and went upstairs to bed.

Kagome was already there, snoring lightly, when he arrived. She roused enough to greet him when he joined her, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him, then asking sleepily, "What happened? You're so late."

It felt good. And she smelled good. "Later," he said, nuzzling her gently back and cuddling up. He wished he had the energy to continue the game. He dozed off dreaming of making love instead, a remarkable vivid dream. She really did smell good.

1


	18. Chapter 18 A Third Hand Plays

Chapter 18 - A Third Hand Plays

The River Woman studied the new anchor developing near her anchor. It was still half-formed and weak, but the location was worrisome. She decided it warranted a closer look.

The rest of the playing field was going well. Several smoothing eddies in the flow were taking shape and stabilizing. Muchitsujo-rei himself seemed to be more interested in finding sustenance than in playing the game; this would be a good time for research.

She rose from her place under the plum tree and slipped into the wind, phasing into the Land of the Living and circling Shimomura Sumio's castle. Dark coils visible only to the gods spread out from the castle casting a shadow of despair across the surrounding lands.

The River Woman followed the coils into the castle, through the wary soldiers, past the frightened retainers, to the cruel unbending heart of the castle commander. She had seldom seen a mortal soul that burned with such darkness. He had been born twisted and the years had only spun the strands of his evil tighter. Far from unravelling, his soul was now a tight laid cable of strength and unyielding purpose. The saving grace was that he was a mortal completely ungifted with any spiritual perceptions or abilities. This blindness and incapacity were what kept him from becoming the fully formed anchor Muchitsujo-rei sought.

Satisfied that she knew enough to continue planning her game, the River Woman returned to her place under the plum tree and rechecked the flowing currents of the playing field.

Something glimmered on her own anchor that had not been there before. Shaken, she leaned over for a closer look. A tiny speck of a mote sparkled back and forth between a clear blue and a vivid red within the shining white portion of the piece that represented the woman. She could sense anger and determination within the mote, but the anger was directed at Muchitsujo-rei, not at her. Some third player had thrown his hand into the game. She studied the change intently but was unable to glean more from the mote. She had no idea who the new player was or what he intended. It certainly complicated things.

--------------------

"OK, Shippo, try it again. And this time, lose the tail."

InuYasha turned his back and waited a moment. Then he turned back to face two Kagomes. He circled his hands; the two Kagomes turned around. The one on the left sported a small fluffy puffball of a tail.

"That would be that tail," InuYasha said, tweaking the puffball.

"Eeep!" Shippo squawked, popping back into his normal shape. He looked sheepishly at his backside, which was now sporting his usual luxuriant tail. "How big was it this time?"

InuYasha showed him.

"Well, that's better," Shippo said, looking a bit hopeful.

They were in the middle of a project; the object was to make it difficult for outsiders to tell when InuYasha and Kagome were not at home. The last incident had made it apparent that the troublemakers were getting dialed in on when they were gone. All Shippo had to do was take on InuYasha's or Kagome's shape and walk around the house or the village for a few minutes at a time. But the tail had to go.

"One more time." InuYasha turned around and waited, then turned back. Once again, two Kagomes faced him. They turned around together. No tails.

"Now that's more like it." InuYasha walked between them, inspecting. Nothing was visually different.

"So, how is it?" asked the Kagome on the right.

"It looks great," answered the one on the left. The voices sounded the same.

InuYasha walked closer and sniffed. Even the scent was the same. "How long do you think you can hold it?" he asked.

"Um, long enough to stroll the village, or do a couple of chores up here, I think," Shippo replied.

"Practice a few times in private," Kagome suggeted. "It wouldn't do to have you pop out of shape at a bad moment."

Tsuchiya chose that moment to wake up from his afternoon nap. He stood up and examined the three of them.

"'Po!" he said, pointing at Shippo. He had been very proud lately of saying people's names.

InuYasha looked at Shippo. He still looked like Kagome. He stared at his son. Frowning, he asked, "How does he know which of you was Shippo?" Suddenly the plan was starting to look unworkable.

"Kagome?" he asked, looking for her opinion.

"Well, I can't tell the difference," she said matter-of-factly. "It should work well enough to keep the neighbors fooled."

Shippo's shape wavered and popped suddenly back to normal. "Oops. Maybe I can't hold it as long as I thought."

"Try InuYasha," Kagome suggested. "Let's see how long you can hold that." She stepped aside and closed her eyes while Shippo did the transformation, then walked back and forth between them examining the details. It looked like she could not tell the difference between them. InuYasha should have been pleased, but instead, a visceral surge of possessive jealousy flared inside him.

"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Kagome, noticing his expression. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss. "I can always tell you by your reactions."

Feeling mollified, if slightly foolish, InuYasha buried his face in her hair and nuzzled her behind the ear, breathing in her scent as he did. There was a note to it he hadn't smelled in a long time. What was that again? The last time he had smelled that was a little over a year ago, while she was still ... uh, pregnant? He sniffed again to make sure. Yeah, that was the scent.

"Uh, Kagome? Is there any chance you're pregnant?" he asked.

"What?!" She stared at him, startled. "Don't be ridiculous. I mean, uh, we, uh..." then she blushed.

Noticing Shippo staring at them, he blushed too. OK, this wasn't the best time to ask this. And he knew what she was driving at; they had been so exhausted after Tsuchiya became mobile they had not actually been able to stay awake long enough to be intimate. At least, not as far as he could remember. But then, the last four months were rather a haze.

Kagome grabbed InuYasha's sleeve and dragged him into the bedroom.

"What makes you think I'm pregnant?" she demanded, once she had the screen drawn.

"Well, um, you smell the same way you did when you were pregnant," he replied.

"You're crazy," she snapped. "There's no way. I mean, you have to do it and we haven't."

"I know what I'm smelling," InuYasha growled stubbornly.

"You're wrong," she insisted. "It's been a year; you've forgotten what it smells like."

"I have not!" He was starting to get irked. Just because she couldn't smell it...

"OK, I'll prove it," Kagome declared. "Let me go get a pregnancy test, then we'll know."

"Fine! You do that!" InuYasha flopped down in a corner and stared a challenge at her.

--------------------

He was crazy. That's all there was to it. Just getting her spun up again. Pregnant? Jeez. Kagome thought back on her way to the well; when had her last period been? A bit over three weeks, she was pretty sure. And when was the last time they had managed to stay awake long enough to actually make love? That was harder. Last week he had been awfully snugly when he got back from chasing down those horse thieves. But she had never totally woken up; she wasn't sure where memories ended and dreams began. She stopped at the well and quickly did inventory: modern street clothes, purse, sufficient pocket money. All right, set.

Kagome returned to her native time, slipped out of the wellhouse when no one was looking and walked briskly to the nearest pharmacy. A very brief search of the shelves located what she wanted, then she was headed out to pay for it. She was in one of the main aisles when someone called her name.

"Yuka?" She wheeled around, saw Yuka and Eri farther down the aisle and hid the package behind her back. She hadn't seen her school pals in over two years and wasn't ready to deal with the grilling she was going to get if they saw this particular package.

"What's that?" Yuka asked, trying to peer around her shoulder. Trust Yuka to cut right to the chase.

"I'm just settling a bet," Kagome said, leaving it deliberately vague and hopefully keeping her hand tight over the label of the box. "I haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?"

"Yuka, it's down this aisle." Ayumi's head poked around the corner of the aisle behind Kagome. "Oh, hi Kagome. What's with the pregnancy test?"

Oh no...

"She said she was settling a bet," Yuka said with narrowed eyes.

Getting worse...

"A bet?" asked Ayumi. She had always been smart in school, but she could be a bit slow on the uptake socially.

"So," Eri guessed, "Your boyfriend says you're not and you say you are. What kind of trouble have gotten yourself into?"

Too late now. Kagome just hoped she could manage to escape after buying the box.

"First off, he's my husband now, not my boyfriend, and second off he's the one who thinks I'm pregnant." Kagome aimed herself toward the checkout station.

"How does that work?" Ayumi asked, confused, while Yuka blurted,

"Married! When were you going to get around to telling us that? You couldn't even invite us to the reception?"

"The wedding was in his village, a really long ways from here," Kagome explained as she paid. "I really do have to go. The baby is just too much for one person to manage."

"**Baby!**" That did it; Yuka and Eri each grabbed an arm and her friends all hustled her out of the store and crammed her into the corner of a booth at the burger joint down the street for a thorough grilling.

Two hours later, Kagome was still trying to escape while her friends reeled from the tidbits she had released and pumped her for more.

"Maama!" There wasn't any missing that exuberant squeal, no matter how noisy the joint was. Kagome looked up toward the main door of the restaurant to see InuYasha standing there looking for her with Tsuchiya sitting on his shoulders. He looked pretty peeved, for which she didn't blame him. She was getting pretty cranky herself. He had at least remembered to put a hat on his head, though there was no telling how long it was going to stay there with Tsuchiya close enough to haul it off. Tsuchiya, who by some miracle was in his human phase, was in the overalls he now wore exclusively. (It had not taken Kagome and Inuyasha long to figure out just how handy the suspenders were as a kid-handle.)

InuYasha spotted Kagome, strode to the booth and slid in next to Yuka,

releasing Tsuchiya to stand on the bench between them.

Eri gasped and said, "Ohhh, he's so cute!" as she looked at Tsuchiya standing on the bench grinning at her.

"Hi, InuYasha," Ayumi smiled a greeting to him.

InuYasha ignored the other women and said to Kagome, "You were planning on getting back some time today."

"I've been trying to get back for ages," she snapped back.

He slouched back and looked around the table. "It doesn't look like you're trying all that hard to me."

"Well, what am I supposed to do, up and slug them?" Kagome demanded, exasperated.

InuYasha examined his knuckles. "Works for me."

"Oh, you're impossible."

"I'm impossible! Who's the one who said she had to get something and she'd be right back? An entire afternoon ago?" He stared at her for a moment, eyes flashing angrily.

She stared back, then waved her hands at the scene. "Look, I'm sorry, you found me, so let's go."

"Never mind that," he said brusquely, "something's come up and I have to go check it out. I can't exactly take him along and it is beyond your turn for the brat anyway. Here."

Kagome's friends had been absolutely riveted to the discussion between InuYasha and Kagome. Everyone had forgotten Tsuchiya was there until InuYasha held him up by the suspenders. Tsuchiya, who had been dangerously quiet to this point, emerged covered with smears of the lipstick and lotions he had dug out of Yuka's purse while no one was watching. He had a lipstick wand in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

"My purse!" Yuka gasped, horrified.

InuYasha put Tsuchiya on the table, then scooped up what was left of the purse along with most of its contents and put them on the table too, while Kagome peeled the lipstick and cellphone from Tsuchiya's grasp.

"Oh, Tsuchiya, you didn't eat any of it, did you?" Kagome fussed as she tried to mop him off with a wet napkin.

"I have to go," InuYasha said, starting to slide out of the booth. "People are waiting for me. I'll probably be in late, so leave out some food."

Kagome caught him by a sidelock and forced him to face her. "Who's your backup?" she demanded.

He slouched back, folding his arms and rolling his eyes. "It's not much of a deal."

"Oh, like last time?" Kagome asked pointedly.

He hunkered down looking really sulky as he muttered, "Well, that wasn't exactly the way it usually works."

"Oh, that's right. You've only gone out alone, half-cocked and unprepared, um, gee, how many times?" she asked sarcastically. "I've lost count. Who's your backup?"

He stared straight ahead through this recitation, glowering and growling lightly deep in his throat, then glared back at her. "Kaede, Eiichi and Shippo."

Kagome blinked and let go of his hair. "Shippo's going?"

InuYasha snorted. "He thought it would be quieter than hanging out with you and the brat."

Kagome groaned. "Oh, Tsuchiya, what have you been up to?" she asked the toddler.

"Don't ask. You really don't want to know. See you later." InuYasha kissed her cheek and escaped, striding out of the restaurant with a purposeful swagger.

While everyone's attention had been focused on InuYasha, Tsuchiya had taken the opportunity to reclaim some of his prizes. He chewed on Yuka's cellphone, hitting the silent mode button. It vibrated against his teeth, making a horrible sound.

"Oh no! Give that back!" Yuka squawked, wrestling the device from his grasp. Deprived of the cellphone, he went for the CD player next, and soon the table was a very active game of "keep-away". Tsuchiya was delighted; he really enjoyed a good game of "pounce" and all those flashing hands were a marvelous target set. He set to it with a will. It took a couple of tries, but Kagome eventually caught the back of his overalls and reeled him. She tickled him to keep him distracted while Yuka reassembled her purse and slid it out of sight.

Still giggling, Tsuchiya rolled back up to a sitting position and surveyed what was left on the table. All the really good stuff was gone, but there were still some wrappers and a couple of unfinished sodas left. He waved and rustled one of the papers and licked the ketchup off it, then grabbed a soda cup and shook it. The ice crashed back and forth followed by the sound of fizzing. He shook it harder and tried to peer in through the lid to see what was making the intriguing sounds. Bubbles pushed their way up through the straw. He sniffed at the bubbles and sneezed. Kagome had started to relax and finish her meal when Tsuchiya picked up the cup and slammed it down onto the table. The lid popped off and sailed into the air followed by a surge of coke and ice that splashed down on everyone.

Gasping and shrieking the women all jumped out of their seats to brush off the ice and start mopping up the soda. Tsuchiya looked hugely impressed with the mess he had made and clapped his hands, crowing.

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" Kagome told him as she finished the table and started mopping him off. He grinned back.

--------------------

InuYasha stared suspiciously at the pregnancy test kit as Kagome explained it one more time. They had waited until the following morning to try it since InuYasha had not returned from his excursion until after dark.

"This thing really works?" he asked again.

"Yes. It's very sensitive." Kagome replied. "It can tell within three days whether or not you're pregnant. It'll turn pink if you are and blue if you're not."

"And if it says you're not..." he insisted.

"I promise to wait three days and try again. After that you promise to let it drop. Right?" She stared at him waiting for his acceptance of her terms.

"Right." He was still acting way too confident for Kagome's comfort.

They sat in their bedroom with the sample cup between them. Kagome held the test strip over the cup for a moment, then slipped it in, saying "As you can see, I'm..."

"Pregnant," InuYasha supplied triumphantly a moment later.

Pregnant. It was pink. She stared at the strip in shock, panic surging through her.

"You do realize what this means, don't you?" she finally said. "There's going to be two of them."

1


	19. Chapter 19 A Close Call

Chapter 19 - A Close Call

Muchitsujo-rei's energy was flagging. Several of his latest projects had fizzled and his anchor piece was still crippled by the lack of a magical element. There were far too many quiet eddies developing in the currents of time. He needed to find or create a hot spot soon or he would become vulnerable.

He sailed to the north and west, along the edge of the mountains, seeking heat and turbulence. Something up ahead started to churn, causing ripples in the currents. He soared over a plain; he had been here before, several times. The upstart, Uesugi Kenshin, and his neighbor, Takeda Shingen, were at it again. They were usually good for a recharge. Muchitsujo-rei circled the forming battle field. Kenshin was encamped on a hill, Shingen was on the plains at its foot. Muchitsujo-rei could see a large contingent of Shingen's men circling quietly through the night to the back side on the hill while the main body kept Kenshin's attention focussed on them. Maybe he could use this; he landed in the woods outside of Kenshin's encampment, taking the shape of one of Kenshin's scouts.

----------------------------

Takaiichi yelped and cursed as he stepped into an unexpected hole, twisting an ankle.

"Quiet! You know the orders!" his sergeant hissed through the fog.

The fog: that was their problem and their blessing; it made navigation difficult, but provided the cover necessary for the attack. They were creeping down the hill through all encompassing fog in the very early morning.

"How far out do you think they are?" a neighboring soldier muttered.

"You'll find them when the hill flattens out." This voice, focused and lethal, was well known to all of them. Their daimyo, Uesugi Kenshin, was there beside them.

Rumor had it the Takeda were circling around the far side of the hill to catch them in a surprise attack at their camp. Meanwhile, they were creeping down the hill themselves to take the Takeda with their own pants down.

The sky grew lighter, the mists grew brighter. Squinting, Takaiichi peered out across the whiteness; would he be completely dazzled when the order came to charge? He gripped his horse's lead and continued the descent.

Trees gave way to grass, the slope leveled. Ahead, the mists dispersed to show the outlines of tents and horses, the warm red glows of fires. The Uesugi army mounted their horses and formed up.

"Charge!"

----------------------------

From the bloody field of Kawanakajima, a roiling black cloud rose into the night, a swarm of demons called from Hell by the pain and anguish of dying men in their thousands. Hungry, the swarm spiraled up then flew south and east across the mountains.

Muchitsujo-rei rode the turbulence of the battle, bathing himself in the hot blasts of the violent updrafts, swooping and falling through the churning, tumbling currents, soaking in the energy roaring from the hot spot. He banked and turned for another plunge through the roiling aura of the battle site when he saw the host of demons streaming from a hole ripped to Hell.

The wall was breached! He had a chance to get through. He folded himself into the semblance of a spear and stooped headlong for the Land of the Dead. Buffeted by the escaping demons, he beat his way against the current toward the rip in the barrier.

Shimmering like the aurora, the edges of the rip flapped wildly like a rent sail in a gale. Already, the Gatekeeper was there; threads of a new web were stretching across the gap, capturing the edges and pinning their movement. The Gatekeeper pulled in the threads and drew the edges of the rip taut.

Muchitsujo-rei compressed himself even more, becoming even slenderer to try to thread himself through a hole in the web.

The Gatekeeper saw him coming. Quickly he cast more threads, catching more pieces of the rip and drawing the hole closed.

Muchitsujo-rei extended a claw-tipped arm; swooping past the tear, he sliced a swath through the threads. The hole gaped again and he shot a god-bolt through it to rock the Gatekeeper back.

The Gatekeeper deflected the shot and fired three quick return shots on Muchitsujo-rei's tail. He turned his attention back to the rip. He cast out more threads; they hooked into the fabric of the barrier and he pulled them in and started tying.

The barrier bunched and stretched under the strain of the threads' pull. The visible rip was lost in the folds, but Muchitsujo-rei could still feel the breach; cold currents of death continued to seep through the barrier. He needed to be quick, be daring. He circled quickly and plunged for the source of the seepage. Following the cold through the folds in the fabric of the barrier, he worked his way in. All around him, he could feel the pulls and tugs as the Gatekeeper rewove the fabric of the barrier. The seep was getting smaller, feebler. It would be closed soon.

Muchitsujo-rei summoned another burst of energy and blasted it along the line of the seep, trying to force the hole open wider. The Gatekeeper saw the blast enter his domain, marked the spot and quickly ran his psychic needle over that spot, stitching down the loose basting of that spot to a tight, impervious seam. He met Muchitsujo-rei face to face as he completed the patch. They glared at each other through the shimmering fabric of the barrier, nose to nose, hands pushing and testing the integrity of the patch.

The patch was whole. They continued to stare for a long while, then Muchitsujo-rei broke away, sailing out across the void and soaring back to the realm of the living and the heat and turbulence of the battle site of Kawanakajima, howling in frustration.

----------------------------

Harvest began in the very early morning of a bright clear day, as usual. Villagers dashed back and forth, yelling at each other and moving tools from place to place, creating the impression of undirected madness, but in truth, it was just the starting up of a well-oiled machine. Everyone knew their place and the job they needed to do.

Kagome joined the women in the cooking squad. She had left Tsuchiya and Shippo with the toddlers, after giving Shippo strict orders to never let the boy out of his sight. Praying that would be a sufficient level of control, for at least a couple of hours, she got to work forming a vast pile of rice-balls to be taken out in the fields with tea at midday.

InuYasha joined the bulk of the villagers out in the fields. As usual, he was assigned to most of the heavy lifting and carrying. The villagers spread out in teams across the fields, cutting the rice and millet, stacking the sheaves, tying them off for transport. The threshers spread out cloths, laid the sheaves on them and beat loose the grain. Another gang winnowed the grain from the chaff and packaged the grain. Elsewhere, other teams dug root vegetables and put them in baskets. Children were spread out across the fields carrying tools back to the smith for sharpening and delivering messages back and forth. The older children were in the fields beside their elders, as much a part of the labor force as any adult.

After the initial scurrying, the village settled into smooth operation. Harvest songs rang out in the fields to establish the rhythms of the work, the chaos settled into purpose. From one end of each field to the other, the crews worked and the produce flowed back to the village square. The day remained clear and began to grow hot.

----------------------------

The demon swarm descended on the first village it found, devouring everything in it. Far from being sated, the demons rose into the sky with their appetites sharpened, churned to a frenzy by the terror and blood of the villagers. At the next village, the demons chased their terrified victims to insensibility before devouring them. They developed a taste for the tender, vibrant energy of the young. Still hungry, they rose into the sky once more.

----------------------------

A dark cloud boiled over the mountains north of the village and began its descent into the valley. Flashes of lightning lit it and weird lights throbbed deep within it as it came. A blast of wind swirled through the fields as the sky darkened. The villagers looked up from their work to gaze at the apparition.

InuYasha's hair rose as the wind hit him, carrying within it the powerful aura of the demon swarm. He stared at the cloud, watching its approach; it was too swift and direct to be natural.

"Take cover! Get out of the fields! MOVE IT!" he yelled, putting aside the baskets he had been carrying and drawing Tetsusaiga. Villagers dropped their tools and ran for the cover of their houses, grabbing their children and half-dragging them behind.

The wind swirled in fierce gusts around them and lightning cracked across the sky as the demons descended from the hill and skimmed, gibbering and howling, across the forest. Inuyasha wound up and let loose with a massive blow from the wind-scar across the fields into the face of the swarm. About a third of the swarm evaporated in the energies of the sword's aura. The demons reformed, filling the void left by Tetsusaiga and continued their charge.

The main front of demons swirled together and shot an immense blast of raw energy at InuYasha; he wound up into the face of the energy front and released a backlash wave into the heart of it. Half the remaining demons faltered and failed in the swirling coils of the return shot.

The swarm dispersed; several small clusters broke away to pursue villagers who had not yet managed to escape the fields, others swirled out to form a loose eddy of demons around Inuyasha, attacking him from all sides.

Kagome stuffed Tsuchiya in Miyako's arms, pushed them into the closest house and sprinted up the stairs for her own house. A small group of demons spotted her dashing up the stairs alone and swooped in for the kill. Kagome pushed out with her hands as they approached, blasting away the demons that came too close. The final demon drew back to circle her from behind as she plunged through the doorway of her house. Moments later, she emerged, an arrow nocked in her bow and her quiver over her shoulder. Her first shot took out the demon pursuing her, then she ran to the top of the stairs just in time to see a bolt of lightning fell InuYasha from behind. All across the fields, demons swooped and snatched children from the fields, despite the best efforts of the adults to beat them away.

Snarling, she drew and fired an arrow into the swarm converging on InuYasha. It flew glowing across the fields and exploded in their midst, destroying most of them. The remainder fled across the treetops of the forest. She turned from InuYasha to the remainder of the battlefield. In short order, she had shot seven demons bearing children from the air. The demons had not yet gained enough altitude to seriously hurt the children when they fell.

Five more demons retreated across the forest, bearing other screaming children. Kagome lost sight of them among the trees. She ran down the stairs and across the fields, trying to get a better angle for shooting. Her path led her to where InuYasha lay prone in the dirt.

"Oh, I can't see them any more!" she cried, consumed with anguish.

InuYasha groaned and roused, sitting up unsteadily. "How bad?" he croaked, looking up.

"There are still five kids out there in the demons' clutches," Kagome answered.

"Right." He hauled himself to his feet and picked up his sword. Kagome jumped on his back.

"You're not coming!" he snarled.

"The Hell I'm not," she retorted. "I've got a lot better chance of nailing those demons at a distance than you do! Let's get moving!"

He took off into the trees, but continued to argue. "So when did you get to be such a hot shot with that bow?"

Kagome snorted. "Shippo and I have been practicing a lot. You may be surprised."

They cleared the trees for a moment; Kagome drew and fired, blasting a low-flying demon with a child out of the air. The screaming child fell into the branches of the tree below.

"We've got to get closer!" Kagome cried.

Two more demons bearing children appeared above the trees.

"End of the ride, sweetheart," InuYasha said, leaving Kagome on a branch and leaping at the demons with his claws extended. He slashed his way through the demons, then caught the children before they fell, leaving them on the ground and returning to the treetops.

They could not find the other two children. After an hour of searching, the disemboweled body of Chizu, Saito's youngest girl, was found. They only found Sarumaru's shirt, torn and stained with gore. Ume was scraped and bruised by her fall into the tree. They collected her from the branches, terrified and crying quietly, and carried her and the other two living children home, then returned with the bereaved parents to collect the remains of Sarumaru and Chizu.

When they returned to the village, InuYasha abruptly grabbed Kagome's arm and dragged her out of the square and toward the village's small persimmon orchard, snarling, "We're going to talk." He may have intended the talk to be private, but short time later, the entire village heard the furious voices ringing out from the trees.

"Just what the Hell were you doing out there in the middle of that? Who had Tsuchiya? I do not want to have to worry about saving your butt in the middle of a fight!"

"Oh! In case you forgot, I'm the one who saved your butt! Do you want me to count the number of times I've put you back together when you tried to do it all alone?"

"I do not want Tsuchiya growing up without a mother!"

"It won't happen that way! Think what we've done together."

"Oh, great! So you think it's better if we both go out at the same time! Brilliant! Let's leave Tsuchiya completely orphaned!"

"Well, I don't want him growing up without a father! You know what that's like! And so do I! You'll go down like your father, trying to do it all by yourself. And like my father, it'll be from something stupid, because no one else was there. I won't have it!"

Kagome burst into tears and turned her back, trying desperately to pull herself back under control. InuYasha stared at her back, rocked to the core. It was the first time she had ever mentioned her father and his fate. She had never before let on how much it hurt. She had that great echoing hole in her heart too.

He gathered her into his arms and let her cry herself out. When she was done, he kissed her forehead and said softly, "I'm tougher than you're giving me credit for. I won't leave you alone. I'm sorry I yelled. I just don't like getting scared like that."

She sniffed again and dabbed at her eyes. "I know you're tough. And you can do so much. But, please, remember. You can't do everything."

----------------------------

The needs of the living supersede those of the dead; however devastated the village was by the attack, the harvest still needed to come in or they would all starve. Chizu and Sarumaru's shirt were laid tenderly in the small Buddhist temple and their pardon was asked for the short delay. An image of Jizo was placed with them to watch over them while the villagers forced themselves back to the work of bringing in the year's food.

InuYasha flinched and looked away every time he passed Saito or Sarumaru's father, Hideo. He was conspicuously absent when the village gathered after dark to mourn the loss of two of their children. Kagome endured the murmuring through the services as the children's remains were blessed and commended to the mercy of Buddha. She held the tired, squirmy, fussing Tsuchiya as she said whatever comfort she could think of to the grieving families, acutely aware of the feeling that the sight of the vibrantly alive Tsuchiya could be unbearable painful for them.

Hideo was silent and distant, still reeling from the shock of losing his boy. Saito was painfully gracious; he actually smiled at Tsuchiya's antics and remarked it was good to see how many of them were safe.

When Kagome finally got home around midnight, she found InuYasha sitting in a tree near their house, staring morosely into the darkness. A quick flick of his ears acknowledged her presence, although he did not look down.

"People noticed you weren't there," she said sternly.

His ears drew down tighter to his head; he had the general air of a beaten dog.

"Yeah, well, since it was my fault that anyone died, I.."

Kagome blew out an exasperated breath and glared at him. He was far too good at finding the worst possible view of things.

"And maybe it's your fault that anyone is still alive at all? There were, what, five hundred of those monsters? We only lost two people. Saito-san said it, he said how good it was to see how many were safe."

"Saito..." InuYasha's ears pulled in even tighter as he hunched into a ball up there on his branch.

"You should have come," Kagome insisted.

"How could I?!" She could hear the pain of his failure throbbing raw in his throat.

"Funerals are not for throwing blame around," she said softly. "They're for supporting people when they're hurting, and you're hurting as much as any of us. It won't harm you to let people see your human side now and then."

InuYasha brushed off that idea with a flare of sullen temper. "Keh!"

"Are you at least coming in?" Kagome asked after a time.

"Someone has to watch, in case they come back," he declared. He resumed staring out into the darkness.

So. He wasn't ready to come down yet. Kagome left and put Tsuchiya to bed.

----------------------------

Word trickled in over the next few days of the fates of the surrounding villages. Their neighbors to the east had been attacked next by the remnants of the swarm. Their priest had finally been able to repel them, but not until they had lost fifteen children. The next village past that one, to the south and east, had had the great fortune of having several Buddhist monks on pilgrimage passing through when the swarm descended. They, together with the resident priest, had destroyed what was left, but only after losing several more children and four of the monks.

Finally, they heard what had happened in the west when a train of horrified merchants arrived. They had found the villages devoid of all life and haunted at night by tortured ghosts who cowered in the corners of the buildings and fled through the lanes and across the fields, screaming.

----------------------------

"Ahem, Kagome-chan? Are you within?"

Kagome looked up from the vegetables she was slicing at the sound of Kaede's voice at her door. She wiped the knife and slipped it back in its protected box, then went to the door.

Kaede was standing by the door with a middle-aged man Kagome had never met. He bowed respectfully as she emerged from the door. She bowed back, casting a quick questioning glance at Kaede.

"Kagome-chan, this is Masahiro-sama, the head man of our neighbors to the east. Masahiro-sama, may I present InuYasha's wife, Kagome-sama." Kagome and the man bowed again formally as Kaede completed the introductions.

"I'm so very honored to meet you," Kagome murmured courteously. "Is there any way I can be of assistance?"

"Is InuYasha here?" Kaede asked.

"Not at the moment," Kagome sighed. InuYasha still had not forgiven himself for failing to save the children; he had been avoiding the villagers and running from his guilt by throwing himself into long, punishing patrols in the mountains and through the forest. All the local demons had quickly scattered to other locales or gone into deep hiding until his fury abated. Still, he regularly checked on Kagome throughout the day; with her recent pregnancy, he was returning back to his protective ways. "He should be back soon, though, if you care to wait."

Masahiro nodded, saying, "If we may."

"Give me one moment to prepare," replied Kagome. She returned into the house and pulled a free-standing screen across the main room; it hid the clutter of half-sliced food for dinner and made a cozy alcove beside the hearth. She fetched a few flat cushions from the bedroom and put the kettle on the hearth for tea. That done, she returned to the porch and escorted her guests into the house. "Please, settle yourselves while I get the tea."

Kaede and Masahiro sat down on the cushions and settled comfortably by the hearth while the sounds of Kagome rustling in the kitchen came from behind the screen. She soon reappeared, carrying a tray with cups, tea-making paraphernalia, and some small sweets. She had no pretensions of doing a formal tea ceremony, backwater villages did not have as rarified an atmosphere as a daimyo's estate, but courtesy and hospitality were still important.

Kagome offered the sweets as she began the process of making tea. She had served Masahiro and Kaede when Tsuchiya poked a sleepy head around the screen.

"Ka-baa!" he cried happily, running around the screen and climbing into Kaede's lap.

Kagome flushed slightly at his boldness in this rather formal situation. "Shippo-chan," she called, "Tsuchiya's up from his nap. Would you please be good enough to play with him for a while?"

Shippo, who had been staying discreetly out of sight, came around the screen and bowed to the guests. He pulled his top out of his sleeve and held it up. "Hey, Tsuchiya," he said, tossing it a couple of times. "Do you want to play with the top?"

Tsuchiya stared at the top, torn. He really liked a snuggle with Granny Kaede, she knew just how to scratch behind his ears, but chasing the top was a lot of fun too.

Shippo wound the string around the top and set it dancing on the table. Tsuchiya watched it intently from Kaede's lap. When it started wobbling, he couldn't stand it any more and got up to pounce on it.

"Let's take it onto the porch," Shippo said. "It works better there."

Tsuchiya followed Shippo outside, carrying the top.

Masahiro stared after them, digesting the unusual scene. "That was..."

"Our son," Kagome answered, blushing again slightly.

"The other. Is he truly...?"

"A kitsune orphan. We took him in shortly after his parents died," Kagome said quietly.

"Ah." Masahiro could understand this. Kindness to kitsune was often repaid in good fortune. Still, this was the most unusual household he had ever visited.

Tea resumed quietly to the background sounds of the top on the porch and Tsuchiya's giggles as he chased and caught the top.

"Papa!" Tsuchiya squealed suddenly. "Go up!"

"That high?" InuYasha asked from the porch.

"Up!"

"How's that?"

"Up! Up! Up!"

"My arms don't go any higher."

"UP!"

"You don't want up. You want down."

Shrieking giggles followed, then InuYasha came through the door swinging Tsuchiya in a wide arc by his suspenders. He pulled up short when he saw the visitors, a bruised, guarded look replacing his grin.

Kagome rose quickly and took Tsuchiya from his arms. "InuYasha, this is Masahiro-sama, the head man of the village to the east. He was hoping to talk to you."

The wary look remained as InuYasha slowly sat across from his visitors. Kaede smoothly took over the hostess role as Kagome retired behind the screen with Tsuchiya.

"I had been intending to come introduce myself for some time now," Masahiro began. "Silly little village duties have delayed me for far too long."

InuYasha nodded, but continued to watch him, silent and guarded. Strangely, the man seemed to want something.

Behind the screen, something clanged loudly to the floor, followed by a sound like shifting pebbles.

"Yes, that would be the beans," Kagome muttered.

"First, I wish to extend my village's thanks for reducing the size of the swarm. The only reason any of us are still alive is that they had to go through you to reach us. We, too, have heard what happened to the west," said Masahiro, bowing from his seat.

InuYasha nodded again and continued to watch the man, bemused now. This man had come all this way to thank him, and yet they had lost nearly a third of their children. The hollow look began to lift from his eyes.

Behind the screen, Tsuchiya squealed loudly and Kagome hissed, "How many times do I have to tell you not to climb the shelves?!"

"My village also sent me to ask if it would be possible to contract some of your services for our protection also."

InuYasha started and looked at Masahiro in astonishment. "You want me?"

Behind the screen, Kagome cried, "Give me that, young man!" There was a sharp thump as she put whatever-it-was on her work table.

InuYasha's ears swiveled back toward the kitchen, but the commotion settled and the kitchen became quiet again. He returned his attention to Masahiro.

"Your village does realize I cannot be in two places at the same time, " he cautioned, although his interest was piqued. Most of the time, things were quiet enough for him to split his time, and it would split the burden of supporting his family between the villages. He was already ranging to the edge of the Masahiro's village's fields in his patrols. It really would not add much to watch them too.

"Yes, yes, we have discussed it a great deal. We still feel we would be greatly ahead with your services," Masahiro insisted.

"Augh! Oww!"

InuYasha's ears snapped back again, then he looked over his shoulder toward the screen. "Kagome?"

"He just whacked me in the shin with the big pestle," she replied, hissing with the pain. The pestle thumped up onto the work table as Tsuchiya protested its confiscation.

"Where's Shippo?" Surely he could help keep Tsuchiya distracted.

"Oh, man, it looks like he cold-cocked Shippo with the pestle before he got me. He's out cold."

InuYasha ran a distracted hand through his bangs, trying to drag his head back into the negotiations. "Uhhmmm," he blinked hard a couple of times and shook his head. "Kaede. Our village needs to agree to this before I can give time to Masahiro's village. When is the next meeting of the elders?"

"I can assemble them tomorrow morning to discuss it," Kaede said.

"Tomorrow morning, then?" InuYasha said, looking from Masahiro to Kaede.

"Yes," they both said, bowing to conclude the meeting.

Just in time. A loud prolonged crash came from the other side of the screen and a strong odor of vinegar and fermenting vegetables rose in the room. A very harried looking Kagome came around the screen, holding Tsuchiya by the suspenders. She pushed him at InuYasha, saying, "If you want dinner any time in the next century, it's your turn."

1


	20. Chapter 20 The Mirror That Looks Out

Chapter 20 - The Mirror That Looks Out

The Gatekeeper walked beside the river to where it bent around a sharp corner. There, at the tip of the inside bank, a plum tree grew, shading a small patch of moss beside the river. A still figure sat on the moss, her face turned toward the shimmering waters, the reflected light of the sun dancing across her impassive visage. The Gatekeeper joined the woman, looking into the waters himself to read the progress of the game.

"_So there you are_," the River Woman snapped.

"_Don't start, my Lady_," he said softly, sitting beside her under the tree. His weariness was palpable. "_Emma-O asks news of the Land of the Living_."

"_Does he indeed? Tell me, has Emma-O put his hand into play? Does he seek the results?_" So that was the source of the River Woman's irritation.

"_No, but he is becoming sorely tempted. Muchitsujo-rei nearly got through that last breach_."

The River Woman blew out a breath, releasing the Gatekeeper and the Lord of the Dead from her temper, though she remained annoyed at something on the field. "_I saw. You did well to seal it so quickly._"

"_So what does have you so ruffled?_" the Gatekeeper inquired.

The River Woman pointed to her anchor piece, with the tiny blue mote sparkling within it. "_What do you make of this?_"

The Gatekeeper studied the mote in his turn, waving up a closer view above the piece. After a time, he dispelled the magnification and shook his head. "_I can't say. It's too soon to tell, but I don't recognize that one._"

"_I thought you saw all that passed through the barrier of the Dead._"

"_I do, but not all souls come from that place. There are other avenues._"

The River Woman sat back on her heels and stared out across the river in deep concentration. "_So_."

"_The Coral Palace?_" the Gatekeeper suggested. "_I have heard the Sea King is still furious about the meddling that destroyed the tranquility of his court and lost him a daughter and a valued warrior._"

"_Perhaps_." She pondered a while longer, then said, "_Please request that Emma-O speak to me if he is ever tempted to make a play. I will be glad to direct him to an effective action_."

"_What of this move?_" The Gatekeeper gestured to the little blue speck,

"_I shall have to do what I can. The time was not optimal_." She sighed and smiled wryly. "_You may at least tell Emma-O that the damage from the breach was minimal. My anchor broke the surge. Even now, the hot spots are cooling_." She pointed out across the field to the battle site and the two ravaged villages which were now glowing the deep orange of a sullen dying fire. The churning turbulence that had marked the area before had settled to softly rocking ripples.

"_One more thing_," the River Woman said as the Gatekeeper rose to leave. "_Muchitsujo-rei is building an anchor of his own to counter mine. It lacks a magical element, so he is actively seeking a magical artifact to complete the piece. Tell the others to be on their guard._"

--------------------

By its very nature, Sango and Miroku's business was self-limiting; there were only so many demon-slayings and exorcisms that could be done in a location before it was played out and they needed to move on.

Sango tucked the last few items into their wagon and secured the mats covering them as Miroku hitched the horse.

"Which way shall we go this time?" Sango asked as she helped the girls climb aboard.

"Winter is coming. Let's head south into the plains," Miroku answered. "I don't want to get caught between villages in an early mountain storm."

Mountains were typically more productive terrain for their business. There was plenty of room for youkai to roam and people were more isolated, but Miroku had a point. They would be better off playing the nomad in the plains until Spring, then seeking another business center.

They wound their way out of the Ashikaga's mountain vales and set out across the plains held by the Hojo clan. They were met with an uncomfortable level of suspicion as they passed through the villages. People generally greeted harmless-looking travelers and asked the news, but despite the fact they were only a simple man and woman with two little girls and a small cat, the villagers hung back in their doorways and watched them pass with hard-eyed silence.

Miroku's attempt at smooth-talking a night's lodging led only to the gruff suggestion that they get as far from the area as they could, and soon. Miroku was not slow to take the hint. They bought food and left, looking for a good campsite for the night. Miroku was very quiet as he drove the horse, thinking hard and watching the reactions of passers-by as they traveled.

He broke his silence as they set up camp in a quiet glade by a small river. "It's not a lack of hospitality," he said as he laid the fire. "Something's up around here. That headman was looking at you and the girls as he told us to move on. And I've seen precious few women under fifty today."

"They saw you coming," Sango replied sourly. It was a sore point with her how much Miroku enjoyed women in general and flirting in particular.

He ignored the jibe. "Everyone else on the road swung wide of us; they scarcely even nodded when I said 'Good afternoon'. They all seemed to be wondering what I was doing with a woman beside me. Did you notice?"

Sango looked up from washing the rice. "I got the strangest looks. First pity, then suspicion when I looked back at them."

They talked a while longer, picking away at the puzzle, but had made no sense of it by the time they turned in for the night.

They continues south in the morning. At the next village, Miroku took to opportunity to chat up a fellow monk as he watered the horse at a ford. The monk told him it was rumored that the local castle commander had an eye for pretty women and was not too particular about whether or not the woman was already married. He also hinted that several of the villages had had their fill of him and trouble was brewing farther north. Miroku decided to continue heading south, away from the rumors of trouble.

Around noon, three mounted samurai in battle gear passed them from the north at a gallop.

Sango watched them disappear around a bend in the road and asked, "Do you think we should get off the road?"

Miroku looked around at the open fields surrounding them. "This isn't a good spot for that. I think I'll turn off this road at the next cross-road. In the meantime, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get inconspicuously armed."

Sango pulled out her armor and hidden knives and put them on under her kimono. "Geez, that's getting tight," she said as she belted on the belly and back plates.

Miroku stared at her figure. It was the first time he had seen her in the skin-tight armor in months. She seemed to be getting thick in the belly. "Sango," he asked, "Is there something you haven't told me?"

"I wanted to be sure, first," she said. "I'm expecting again." She slipped her kimono back on over the armor.

"Let's save the celebration until we're out of this," Miroku said, refastening the mats on the wagon. Suddenly, he couldn't get out of the area fast enough.

They had only gone another mile when a column of soldiers marching quickly the other direction met them. Miroku nodded quietly and tried to drive past, but the officer in charge halted the column and had his men take control of the horse.

"Well, what have we here?" the officer asked, looking them over carefully. His gaze lingered on Sango before moving to the wagon. "Let's see what you have in the wagon."

"Just household possessions and the tools of our trade," Miroku said quietly, lifting the end of a mat slightly. Pots and pans showed under the mat.

"Come on, let's see all of it," the officer insisted, ripping back all the mats. Sango's giant boomerang, Hiraikotsu, was prominently visible amid the clothes and blankets on top of the load.

"What's this?" He stared at them with hard eyes. "Weapons are not allowed to anyone but soldiers."

"We're demon slayers," Miroku explained. "That's one of our tools."

Demon slayers?" scoffed the officer. "That's a good one. You're smuggling weapons to the villages."

"Do you truly think an untrained person can use that?" Miroku asked as he casually took out a string of coins and counted some out. "We're just passing through and don't want any trouble."

The officer watched Miroku casually lay the coins on the tailboard of the wagon, within easy reach, and considered the bribe. There was enough there to buy a night of drinking for the men and still pocket some for himself. On the other hand, if he did his job, he would escape the potential wrath of Shimomura Sumio and maybe even get a rich bonus for providing him with a new woman. The woman was striking and the man didn't look like much.

"You should have thought of that before you started spying and smuggling," the officer growled. "Seize them!"

"Kirara, get the girls out of here," Miroku ordered, swinging Shinzu on the cat's back as she transformed to her full size. Hisui scrambled on behind her sister and the cat launched herself into the sky. The startled soldiers sent belated arrows into the sky after Kirara but missed badly. Meanwhile, Miroku and Sango arrayed themselves back to back, he with his staff while she drew her sword.

"Demon slayers!" the officer roared. "You consort with demons! Take the woman alive, the commander will pay well for her." He waved his men in to capture them. Miroku squared off against the officer and tried to keep anyone from passing behind him to grab Sango. The men were not prepared to deal with Sango. Hiraikotsu may have been her main weapon, but she was more than proficient with a sword.

It was the sheer numbers that defeated them. Miroku caught a blow to the head that staggered him, then another that put him out.

--------------------

"Daddy? Daddy? Wake up, Daddy." Small hands tugged at him, shaking and pushing.

Miroku looked up blearily through a pounding head. The wagon's contents were dumped all over the side of the road and the horse was gone. He didn't see Sango either. Hisui and Shinzu were kneeling beside him with a growling, restive Kirara standing watch over them.

"Where's Mommy?" he asked Hisui.

"The soldiers took her. We saw it from the sky," Hisui answered. Kirara growled again and looked urgently up the road.

"That way?" he asked the cat. "Do you think you can find where they went?"

The cat snarled and lashed her tails, eager to get moving.

"One moment. We may need some things to get her back." Miroku picked quickly through the debris along the side of the road. All the weapons, including their kitchen knives, were gone. He went back to the wagon and opened the secret compartment where he hid what treasures they had. Everything was still there; the soldiers had not found the stash. Miroku pulled out their money, the necklaces and the strange magic mirror he had taken from Yamashito Yasuo and a few other small possessions of value. If he couldn't catch up in time to free her before they reached the castle, maybe he could buy her back.

"Daddy, what's that?" Hisui asked, pointing at the cloth-wrapped mirror.

"It's a mirror," Miroku replied.

"Is it magic?" Shinzu asked.

"Yes, it is," Miroku answered.

"What does it do?" Hisui asked.

"I'm not really sure," Miroku replied, unwrapping out the mirror. "I've never had a chance to look that hard." He did so now, picking it up to look closer into the silvery translucent stone embedded in its frame. There was an eerie aura of power and peril flowing around the stone, but he could detect no evil. The girls peered over his shoulder as he looked into the stone, expecting to see his reflection in the softly shimmering stone. Instead, the stone brightened, colors swirled opalescently across it then resolved into the image of a lovely young girl in a dark place holding a rosary as tears trickled down her cheeks. The picture then dissolved into the picture of a worn mother cradling a sick child, followed by an old man binding the wounds of a young farmer. Scene after scene of tragedy passed through the mirror, the great and the humble, and through it all the desperate yearning faces of people praying at the end of their hope. He was just about to put it down when an image of Sango, battered and tightly bound and gagged, appeared in the stone.

"Mommy!" Shinzu cried, seeing her. She seemed to be draped over a horse that was trotting down a road. Miroku could see her jostling, but he could not see enough of the terrain to find where she was. At least they knew she was still alive.

"All right, girls, let's go find her," Miroku said, putting the girls on Kirara's back and climbing on behind them. He wrapped the mirror carefully and tucked it and his other treasures into his robes, then they took off into the sky in the direction Kirara indicated.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei felt the surge of a magical aura flare. Before he could track down its location, it was gone. He canvassed the area, sniffing out any hint of magic. This artifact was too close to ignore. Questing, he skimmed back and forth, finding and dismissing the small youkai and uneasy spirits that were scattered across the province. The artifact was potent; even dormant he should be able to find it.

--------------------

Miroku and his daughters caught up with the soldiers as they marched through a castle town to the castle itself. The castle had once been a relatively small outpost, but now it was being greatly enlarged and further fortified. They saw the horses pass through the gates and disappear toward the stables. The officer went into the keep.

Miroku was not about to risk a swoop into the stable on Kirara to fight Sango free with the girls along. He'd have to do it the sneaky way. He left them outside the castle walls with Kirara in a small grove of trees with strict orders to stay there and hide.

He pulled up short as he came to the first gate of the castle. This castle understood security. Hard-eyed guards stood watching from a distance as other guards carefully went through the persons and possessions of each petitioner approaching the gates. He wasn't going to be able to bluff his way in easily.

--------------------

The River Woman marked the flare of magic on the field of the game. It was distressingly close to Muchitsujo-rei's anchor. Had he found an artifact to complete the anchor? The flare was gone before she could investigate further.

--------------------

So, this was the spy. Shimomura Sumio studied the woman standing defiantly before him. She was a little taller than most, slim and muscular, with a pretty face marred by a large bruise on one cheek and flashing brown eyes. Her clothes were torn in several places, the rips revealing cuts, scrapes and bruises.

The captain's report said she had put up quite the fight, killing two men and wounding seven before they had taken her down. He reported her companion as dead, and that two children, probably present as cover, had escaped on a demon cat. They had been coming from the north, from the heart of the rebellious villages, and their wagon had been loaded with household goods and some rather odd weapons and poisons. She and her companion must have been ninja hired by the Ashikaga to push the rebellion along.

So. He wanted the details of the plot, who had hired them, who their contacts were and how widespread was the plot. This time, he decided to get the information himself. He had become bored with terrified, cowering women; he looked forward to breaking a woman who could fight.

--------------------

It had taken a while, but Miroku found a place where he could scale the castle's wall. Under the cover of darkness, he prowled the baileys of the third circle, working his way in toward the center. He slipped through a gate into the second circle when the guard left the gatehouse briefly to relieve himself against the the wall.

The second circle contained more storehouses and baileys, as well as the commander's palace amid a formal garden. Miroku was passing the palace when he heard Sango's voice coming from an upstairs room crying, "There is no plot. We were just passing through on our way to the south." He heard a sickening thud and a crash as Sango cried out in pain. Then cloth ripped as she yelled in revulsion, "Get your hands off me." More thuds and crashes came from the room.

--------------------

The commanders first concubine, Minori, had seen the new woman brought into the palace and taken directly to the commander's private chambers. This one didn't look like most of the women she had seen brought in. There was nothing submissive about her, although she had be beaten around recently. She wasn't sure which she hated more, hearing the weeping of the gentle ones or the breaking of the fierce ones. It always came out the the same in the end. They either went mad or killed themselves. Minori, herself, pretended to be mad; thus far the commander had only taken her body, he didn't believe she had enough mind to break.

She retreated to the ground floor of the palace and prowled the halls, singing to keep out the sound of the torture. Hands grabbed her suddenly from behind, one over her mouth and another pinning her against a man's side. Minori, knowing what was expected from her, leaned back sensuously and reached behind her to fondle the man. It was often open season on Minori for the more vicious of Sumio's retainers when he had another woman in his chambers. But this time, the expected groping did not happen.

"While that might be pleasant at another time, my Lady, I have other business tonight," a dry voice muttered in her ear. "You're going to show me the way upstairs."

Minori bit his hand and shook herself free as his grip loosened. She spun around to confront a man she had never seen before. He was dressed like a Buddhist priest and seemed to be unarmed.

"You're one of the spies!" she hissed.

"I'm not a spy," he said quietly. "I'm just a simple priest."

"A simple priest would not have made it this far. Are you sohei?" she asked.

"I have had some training," he allowed. So he was sohei.

"Huh! If you're not spying, then why are you here?"

"I'm getting my wife back," the man said grimly.

Minori thought fast. This was a first. This woman had someone willing to come after her and smart enough to get this far. It could finally be a way to get back at the commander and maybe even get out. "Look, you won't be able to do this by yourself. I know the entire castle. I can get you anywhere on the grounds. I want out of here, all the way out of the province. I help you, you help me. Do we have a deal?"

The man thought a moment, then said, "It's a deal."

Minori nodded, then led him out of the closet and into the hall. She turned to leave the building, pulling him after her. The woman screamed over their heads, a raw sound of pain and despair. The man shook himself free, bolting toward the stairs, but she caught him and pulled him back. "No! There are guards on every floor. You'll be captured immediately. Weapons first. We won't have time afterward."

"But she ..."

Minori shook her head. She knew this all too well. "We have time. He likes to toy with them. A woman like her, he'll play for hours before he breaks her."

The man looked sick and stood shaking with revulsion. He stared at her like she was some sort of beast herself, that she could take this so calmly. She looked back evenly, letting see her hatred. "Trust me. I've been here since he arrived. Weapons first." She led the way out of the building.

"If anything happens to her..." the man behind her muttered direly. He was not happy with her choices.

Minori stopped and confronted him. "Things are going to happen. But if you really want to get her out and not die instead, we do it my way. You won't do her a damned bit of good charging up there unarmed. You'll get cut down as you go up the stairs. Before we continue, let's get one thing straight. You cannot afford to be particular. If you're not up to slitting throats, tell me now. This is going to get rough, even if we're lucky."

He stared back, then nodded. "I am not leaving her in here. I can slit a throat if I must."

They approached a long storehouse which ran along one of the walls of the second circle, then paused in the darkness outside the door.

"It's an armory," Minori whispered. "I'll distract the guards. You go in and take what you can get quickly. We want knives at least. Things we can carry easily and hide when we need to. Then we'll get your wife."

She put on her vague, unbalanced face and danced, swaying and singing softly, through the door of the armory to deal with the guards.

"What the..."

"It's Mad Minori."

She giggled and said, "I have news. There's a moon outside tonight. You get to kiss me."

The guards watched her warily; trouble had a way of following Mad Minori.

"Get back to the palace, Minori-san. You know you're not allowed out."

"Don't you like me? Everyone likes me. Here, let me show you." She slid open her kimono, revealing herself.

"Oh, damn. If anyone catches her here like that, it'll be our heads."

"Come on, Minori-san, back you go." The guards wrapped her kimono back around her, then they took her arms and escorted her back to the palace. She tried to kiss one of them and rubbed her hands over the other's crotch while she watched the priest slip into the armory. When the guards got her to the palace, she dug in her heels, whimpering and clinging to them. They had their hands full getting the screen slid open quietly and shoving her through. She had collapsed against the wall, sobbing piteously, when she saw the priest come back out and slip into the shadows. The guards bolted quickly back to their stations, muttering about the nearness of their escape.

She was crying, laughing, nearly hysterical, when the priest came through the door to join her. He held her for a time while she pulled herself back under control. It wouldn't do to fall apart now when there was actually a real chance of escape. "Promise," she whispered urgently, "Promise! You're getting me out of here!"

"I'll get you out, my Lady," he said quietly, slipping her a pair of knives.

She took them and slipped one into a sleeve and the other under her kimono sash. She took a couple of steadying gulps of air and forced the trembling out of her limbs, steeling her nerves, forcing out all thoughts except the job to be done.

She loosened her kimono so that she was only barely covered. There was a bottle of sake nearby in a servant's closet, ready for when the master requested it. She took the bottle, dribbled some down her front and washed a mouthful around in her mouth. She was about to spit it out when she changed her mind and swallowed it; she needed all the courage she could get, real or artificial. "All right, let's go. Listen carefully, once upstairs, the commander's suite is the third door on the left. Go past the door and wait until he comes out, then do not waste any time getting your wife. Get in and get out. There won't be any time to dawdle. Leave the distractions to me. Wait for me outside the building. And don't interfere, no matter what happens."

She led him to the stairs, and putting her finger over his lips and waving him to stay put, she sauntered up the stairs like she was drunk, singing a bawdy drinking song.

The guards froze in horror as she came up the stairs.

"Oh, no, it's Minori"

"Damn it, she's drunk. Where'd she get the sake?"

"Go back to your room, Minori-san. You're not supposed to be here."

She picked her mark, the guard Toyo who had been so vicious to the little scullery wench, Nezumi, last week. The girl had barely been twelve. She had more reasons for picking Toyo; he had taken his pleasure with her a few times too, in remote corners of the castle where the Sumio-sama would not find out what happened to his first concubine, trusting to her madness to keep the secret. That was about to end...

"Oh, Toyo-sama, there you are," she said, weaving up to him, kissing him and draping herself over him. "I've missed you. I want you." She twitched her kimono open the rest of the way and rubbed herself on him, licking his neck and moaning ecstatically. The rest of the guards stared, locked in horrified fascination, as she untied his pants and fished inside. "Toyo-chan, do you remember the corner? That special, dark corner where you showed me you were more of a man than Sumi-chan? Do it again Toyo-chan."

Miroku darted up the stairs and down the hall, unnoticed.

"I want more, Toyo-chan! Put it in!" she cried loudly, thrusting herself against him and kissing him urgently. " Harder! Don't stop!" She gasped and moaned as though in the throes of ecstasy.

The screen to the commander's chambers slammed open and Sumio strode out in a vicious temper. Miroku slid into the suite as Sumio roared at the sight of one of his guards servicing his concubine and charged at them, ripping them apart. Sumio threw Minori hard against the wall, then took Toyo's sword and disemboweled him with it. Miroku wasn't back out yet, so Minori wailed, "But I wasn't done with him yet. Will you do it instead?" She scrambled up to cling to Sumio, kissing him and putting her hand into his kimono to feel him up.

Miroku appeared, carrying his half-conscious wife over his shoulder, and bolted down the stairs.

"Drunken slut," Sumio said contemptuously. "I'll deal with you later. Take her to her room and clean up that mess."

Minori started giggling hysterically. The guards grabbed her arms and half-dragged her down the stairs as Sumio returned to his chambers.

Sumio roared again as he discovered his captive gone, while at the bottom of the stairs, Minori slipped and fell out of the guards' arms. As they bent to pick her up, she drew her knives and slit the unwary guards' throats, then bolted for the door, knocking lamps into the tatami mats as she went.

"Come on, this way," she hissed as she flew through the door. Miroku ran after her to the first gate.

"Fire!" she cried as she approached the gate. "Fire at the palace!"

Minori pushed Miroku through the gate as the gate guards looked back at the palace; the flames were just becoming visible through the screens. The cry was taken up and soon the entire castle was in an uproar. Minori led Miroku through the baileys of the first circle as retainers fled carrying treasures and guards ran back to the castle to battle the spreading fire.

--------------------

Muchitsujo-rei wheeled over the castle again, starting another pass to the north, and felt the throb of magic. There it was. There! Right in the castle, but moving out fast. He dropped lower, weaving among the frantically milling crowd until he found a man moving out, led by one woman and carrying another. Somewhere on that man was the artifact. Muchitsujo-rei circled the group, marking them in his memory. The man glowed with the spiritual powers of a Buddhist priest. Muchitsujo-rei focused on the artifact concealed within his clothing. It was small, round and something of the unearthly aura of a bodhisattva burned within it. The artifact rejected his touch, so Muchitsujo-rei placed a marker on the man to trace him as he moved.

--------------------

Soon Minori and Miroku were out of the final gate and in the castle town. Miroku took over now, leading Minori to the grove of trees where he had hidden Kirara and the girls.

"Mommy!" Shinzu cried, leaping up to see her.

"Put me down," Sango said. "I can stand." She wobbled and had to grab Miroku's shoulder to stay upright.

"This isn't good enough," Minori said. "We need to get a lot farther out and soon if we're going to get away. He'll have every man in the castle looking for us by morning."

Miroku wasn't sure how Kirara was going to manage carrying all of them, but they were just going to have to try, at least for a short while. He put the girls on first, Sango behind them, Minori next and himself at the end. "I know it's a stretch, Kirara, but get us as far out of here as you can."

Minori gasped, startled, as the cat took off into the air, and Miroku grabbed her tighter to steady her. Kirara got a couple of miles before she had to set down, panting. The girls were exhausted and Sango was barely able to stand upright. They simply had to stop. Miroku hid them all in a barn for an uneasy night.

1


	21. Chapter 21 The Mirror Captured

Chapter 21 - The Mirror Captured

Shimomura Sumio walked around the smoldering remains of his palace, surveying the damage. It was a complete loss. Several large timbers remained standing, blackened bones of a gutted building that still smoked and glowed red in pockets in the predawn darkness. Several of the surrounding buildings had been scorched, but his men had been able to contain the fire to the palace and a tack room. Two charred bodies had been found in the ashes and rubble that remained of the palace.

Most of the people in the palace had escaped the fire, but a roll call had revealed two guards among the missing and no one had any idea what had become of Mad Minori.

Sumio fumed, his temper slowly building to a killing fury. Someone had gotten that ninja woman out and that someone had nearly destroyed his castle in the process. That someone must be found and made to pay.

"Assemble the troops."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minori watched the road from the barn as dawn lit the sky. The morning was bitingly cold; she wrapped her skimpy courtesan's kimono tighter around herself, shivering, as the peasants started appearing from their houses for their early morning chores, fetching wood and water and tending the livestock.

She turned to Miroku and said, "We need to get moving. Sumio will have everyone out in force before the sun is fully up. We really kicked the hornet's nest last night."

There was no disputing Minori's assessment, but Miroku did not like moving Sango in her current condition. She was covered with bruises; one eye was swollen shut by a massive black bruise over her cheek and her lip was split and nearly three times its normal size. There were ugly scratches and gouges on her arms and torso that showed through her ripped clothes, hinting at the bruises that lay beneath. Sleep had come to her, but it had not been a restful sleep. She needed a place to heal.

Sango was hurting, but she was no longer groggy. She studied their new companion with suspicion. She thought she remembered seeing this lovely woman in the butterfly-bright kimono last night, draped sensuously around the commander and fondling him while they stood in the blood of a slain guard. What did Miroku think he was doing, taking this twisted wanton with him?

"Houshi-sama, who is this woman?" she demanded.

"Our host's concubine," Miroku replied. "She got us out of the castle last night. Now, we have to get her out of the province."

"I saw her," Sango said, revolted. "Her and the commander standing in blood, doing..."

Minori looked at her, hard-eyed and unrepentant. "That was a distraction to get you out."

"You killed a man for a distraction?" Sango cried, appalled.

"Don't fret yourself about him. He deserved it."

"No one deserves that," Sango growled.

"No one? You should have seen what he left of a little twelve year old maid last week." Minori looked at Sango bitterly. "Don't judge me. You only had a taste of what life is like in that gateway to Hell. And unless you want to go back and get more of Sumio-chan's tender attentions, we have to get moving."

Sango got moving, limping to the haystack to rouse the girls, but she did it with a clenched jaw and hard angry eyes. She understood the deal, but the sooner they ditched this woman, the better, in her opinion.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Some premonition told Sumio to seek his quarry to the north. He was not one to trust entirely to premonitions, so before he left, he organized all of his men into groups to search the entire province, starting with the castle and its attached town. He took charge of the regiment going north personally, riding out as soon as all the other regiments were moving.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Look Daddy, it's our wagon!" Shinzu cried, slipping off Kirara's back and running for a closer look.

Minori turned on Miroku, appalled. "You've got to be kidding me!" she cried, shrill and panicky. "You're taking us up the same road you came in on?"

"There are a number of things we need from this wagon," Miroku replied. "After this, we will be leaving the road. Right now, I want you women to put on Sango's spare clothes. The ripped clothes and court kimono are much too conspicuous. We also need warm wraps and there is a supply of healing salves and potions one can't find elsewhere."

"Houshi-sama, where is Hiraikotsu?" Sango asked. "Did you hide it?"

Miroku shook his head regretfully. "I didn't see it when I woke up. I don't know what happened to it."

"Did it hide, Mommy?" Hisui asked. It was a more intelligent question than it seemed; Sango's great boomerang, Hiraikotsu, was at least partially aware. It had been forged of the subdued and purified bones of vanquished youkai and retained some of the spirits of those youkai. The weapon was bonded to Sango and reluctant to be touched by anyone else, especially an enemy. It very well might have hidden itself until its mistress returned to reclaim it. Sango wanted to look, but Miroku vetoed the idea.

"I don't like it either, but we'll have to come back later for Hiraikotsu, after we have the girls safe with InuYasha," he said as he rubbed salve on Sango's face, brushed her lips in a very gentle kiss, and put a wide-brimmed hat on her head. "Good. With that on, you look like every other farm wife. The bruises are hidden in the shadows."

Shinzu held Kirara who was now no more than a small pet kitten and the rest of them carried the supplies they could find in the sort of baskets commonly used to gather herbs.

"Very good, ladies, shall we go gather herbs?" Miroku led his charges out across the dykes around the rice paddies and off into the fields beyond, traveling west toward the forest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sumio's column moved north, toward the Ashikaga border. At the first village they passed, Sumio dispatched ten men to search the village as he and the bulk of the column continued north. He didn't really expect to find anything in the village, but his presence must continue to be felt.

As the column passed a ransacked wagon abandoned between villages, he paused to look around. People had been through here, but it was probably just scavengers taking anything of value they could find. Still, something in the back of his head said, 'Turn here'. Nothing unusual was visible, just the wagon and the surrounding fields, now empty and brown after the harvest. He wasn't a big believer in funny feelings, but this one was insistent.

He told the officer traveling with him, "Continue along the road. At each village, stop and go through it thoroughly to see what shakes loose. I'll catch up with you by nightfall. I'm taking ten men with me on a little side trip."

The column continued on its way down the road.

Sumio sat on his horse and turned slowly around. "All right, I've stopped. Now which direction?"

West - he was supposed to go west. He moved his men across the fields at a slow trot.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The River Woman watched tensely as Muchitsujo-rei's anchor turned off the road to follow the mirror. Muchitsujo-rei, himself, was hovering right beside the anchor, preventing direct interference. She examined the field around the mirror for something she could use for a distraction, but found nothing she could place in time. Nor was there any way she could get a message to her compatriots in time to stop the anchor. All she could do was watch and try to pick up the pieces afterward.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sango wasn't doing well. She trudged along as well as she could, but her pace was flagging and her path was starting to weave. Minori exhorted her and the girls to hurry up, but she had done all she could. They crossed the gully of a small rivulet into a grove of pine trees that concealed them from view. There, Miroku called a short halt and settled her under a pine tree with the girls and Kirara to rest while he and Minori fetched water and looked for whatever food they could glean from the countryside. They had crossed back over the rivulet and were collecting some mushrooms where the forest met the fields when Minori looked up and froze.

"We're in trouble, priest. That's Sumio on the other side of the field. I recognize the horse."

Miroku casually stood up and looked across the field. Sumio was just a small silhouette on the other side.

"We're just gathering mushrooms," he murmured. "Don't look any more than casually curious. Let's pick a few more, then pretend we've run out and are going to look for more in the forest. Count of twenty, then into the bushes. One, two..."

Miroku and Minori looked at the ground, Minori stooped to pick some more, then they casually vanished into the bushes.

"Did it work?" she hissed, hazarding a glance back.

"Not well enough. He's starting across the field. Let's move."

They tried to slip inconspicuously through the underbrush, but some premonition was moving Sumio along at an accelerating pace. They slid down into the gully of the rivulet, then ran upstream, bent over, for a few hundred yards to scramble back up on the other side in the heart of the grove of pine trees.

"Sango!" Miroku called softly but urgently, "You and the girls take Kirara and get out of here. Fly to InuYasha with the girls. We've got trouble!"

Sango and the girls scrambled onto Kirara's back and burst out from under the trees to rise into the sky as Sumio entered the grove from the other side.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Muchitsujo-rei watched Sango take off but discounted her. She did not have the mirror, so her fate was of no interest to him. He returned his attention to the priest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The River Woman saw Sango's weapon back near the wagon, calling forlornly for its mistress. She placed a marker near Hiraikotsu to effect its finding. She may yet be able to recover the mirror.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minori tried to melt quietly behind a tree in the gloom as everyone watched Sango escape, but Sumio noticed the movement. He rode through the grove and trapped her against a tree with his spear, looking down into her desperate, lucid face while she softly prayed to Kannon to make the end quick and merciful. The mirror hidden in Miroku's clothes flared to life, glowing warmly against his skin.

"Minori. Suddenly a great many things become clear," said Sumio. "How long have you been working for the Ashikaga? Were you a plant even before I came to the province? We're going back to the castle and this time you are going to tell me everything."

Quietly, slowly, Miroku eased the mirror from his robes and unwrapped it. Images swam across the its stone face, settling on the scene playing out before him. He ran his hand over the bronze frame, hefting the mirror. If he cast it right, he should be able to knock Sumio out of the saddle, or at least daze him long enough to make a run for it.

He threw the mirror in a slicing arc. It spun, discus-like, through the air toward Sumio's head. Sumio saw it just barely in time to dodge a direct blow, but it gave Miroku the time he needed to to grab Minori's hand and get her running across the rivulet and over the fields.

Sumio's men charged after them in pursuit, but were quickly dispersed in confusion by a huge boomerang that swooped from the sky into their midst, felling two of them. The boomerang spun back into the sky, then Sango landed Kirara long enough to pull Miroku and Minori aboard. Kirara took off again, flying west over the forest trees.

"Sango! Where did you..." Miroku cried.

"Shinzu saw Hiraikotsu from the air, so we went back for it," Sango explained shortly.

"I'll take whatever gifts the gods choose to give," Miroku said gratefully. "Now, let's get as far as Kirara can take us."

Kirara was only good for a couple of miles, but two miles of pathless forest between them and Sumio was enough. They landed in a small clearing and continued on foot to the next village. Despite the fact that she rode Kirara most of the way, Sango collapsed once they had found shelter. A sympathetic farmer, helped along by a handsome payment from Miroku's coins, hid them in his barn for four days and provided food. By then, Sango was sufficiently recovered to travel and they hastened west through ever worsening weather, seeking the relative security of Kaede's village.

Sumio watched them disappear through the trees, swearing viciously. Then he picked up the mirror and looked at it. The images playing across it persisted for a few moments, then faded away into the softly shimmering silvery-gray of polished moonstone. Interesting. Perhaps he could use this mirror to find the fugitives or spy out other plots against him. He slipped the mirror into his saddle bag for further inspection.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The River Woman cursed the nearness of her failure while Muchitsujo-rei crowed in triumph. He had the mirror. The River Woman had to be content with the fugitives' escape.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That night and for many nights after, Sumio took out the mirror in the quiet of his new room in the castle and tried to summon the images. After his very skimpy knowledge of magic was exhausted, he consulted with local sorcerers for ideas. The mirror remained stubbornly dormant, no matter what he did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Muchitsujo-rei's quivering anticipation faded to perplexed confusion then to howling frustration as it became clear that this artifact, despite its immense spiritual virtue, was not going to complete his anchor. He circled in and tried to touch the mirror himself; surely the touch of a kami would bring it to life.

The mirror rejected him. He could not really touch it; every time he drew near, some force deflected him and sent him sliding off to the side. Kami and bodhisattvas coexisted, but did not really inhabit each other's spheres. Their domains overlapped most in the world of men; they influenced each other through the agency of men. It appeared this man would not serve to bridge the gap; the bodhisattva wanted nothing to do with him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The River Woman sat back on her heels, her limbs weak with relief as the anchor remained unforged. She began to laugh, softly, ironically, as she looked at Kannon's mirror lodged in the heart of cruelty and despair. "Oh, Brother, your understanding is so incomplete. Did you indeed think your minion could ever truly touch the Mirror of Mercy?

1


	22. Chapter 22 Reunion

Chapter 22 - Reunion

Kaede and Masahiro's villages agreed in concept to a sharing arrangement, but postponed ironing out the details until all harvest activities were complete and delegations could be assembled. By then, it was November. It took three days to hammer out the sharing agreement between the two villages; InuYasha, to his dismay, was required to sit through the entire negotiation. The biggest sticking point had been the payment schedule. In all truth, InuYasha really didn't care who paid what, as long as his family was fed, so his small portion of patience was severely tried as the two villages wrangled out such minutiae as who provided gourds and how the house's roof would be maintained, each vying to maintain village pride by providing an impressive package and still not get stuck with more than half. Finally, it was over, he could let go of the painful gritted-teeth smile, and go back to doing what he did best.

Feeling wrung out, he climbed the steps back to his house and pushed his way through the door screen to be met with the heavy ozone-like smell of a recently cast spell and the sight of Kagome working at the kitchen table with heavy waves of rage radiating from her. Tsuchiya was crouched in a far corner of the room staring at his mother with huge, awestruck eyes. For the first time since he was born, he wasn't moving a muscle.

InuYasha could feel the prickling aura of the spell raising his hair and zapping at the tips of his ears as he entered the room. It seemed to be coming from the roof. It was never good when Kagome summoned magic while in a temper; the results were always incredibly hazardous to his health.

InuYasha stopped and took his time digesting the scene. Whatever had happened, it must have been a doozy. He decided to talk to Tsuchiya first; the story would be shorter. He sat down beside the boy, who looked at him gravely.

"Mama mad," Tsuchiya said solemnly. That was a classic understatement.

"I see." InuYasha glanced again at his wife. Kagome shot him a glare that would shatter granite. He hadn't been on the receiving end of one of those looks in a long time. "Mama's scary when she's mad."

"Scawy," Tsuchiya agreed, cautiously looking at his mother again. "Papa mad?" he asked, looking back at InuYasha.

"No," InuYasha replied. It was kind of hard to be mad when you didn't know what the hell was going on.

Tsuchiya sighed with relief and climbed into his lap, cuddling close.

Sighing himself, InuYasha got up, still holding Tsuchiya, and approached his wife.

Kagome shot a soul-withering glare at Tsuchiya, then demanded, "Do you want to know what that boy has been up to?"

"I'm not sure. Do I?" He was going to find out anyway, whether he wanted to or not.

"I was slicing carrots for dinner. The instant my back was turned, he climbed up the door posts into the rafters, then he dropped on me from up there just as I made a cut. I came **this close** to slicing my finger off!" She waved her hand just off InuYasha's nose, making him cross-eyed as he tried to focus on her flitting fingers.

Oh yeah, there was no doubt that had seriously pissed her off. InuYasha told Tsuchiya, "Jumping on Mama is bad."

"Bad," Tsuchiya said softly, cringing tighter against his father.

"I was ready to kill him," Kagome fumed, still blowing off steam.

"I think he noticed," replied InuYasha. "Umm, about the spell..."

Kagome seared him with another white-hot look.

"Yeah. Later. Umm, I think I'll take Tsuchiya outside while you work." InuYasha retreated quickly.

She had cooled off considerably by the time dinner was done; she was only throbbing red hot beats of temper. InuYasha and Shippo stepped very carefully around her throughout the evening and made sure that Tsuchiya never had a chance to stray off the straight and narrow path until he was settled into bed.

It had become an evening winding-down ritual for Kagome to brush the day's mats and debris out of InuYasha's hair. He never paid any attention to his hair; as long as it was out of his eyes, he was good. She, however, refused to let it get out of control.

He was sort of dreading tonight. She tended to yank rather vigorously when she was fuming about something. He let her rattle on about her day, filled her in about the details of the contract, and somehow managed to escape with his scalp intact. But was she calm enough to discuss the spell on the rafters? He had to get her to tone it down or someone was going to trigger the thing and blow the roof off.

He pulled her around onto his lap and held her close for a moment, taking a deep sniff of her scent as he did. The sharp tang of temper was gone, leaving her normal warm, gentle scent. There was something was different in the flavor of the "pregnant" note; it just didn't quite smell like last time. He put off puzzling that out; right now, it was more important to keep the house intact.

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They made it to a woodcutter's hut just as the storm hit. It was a small ramshackle building that was normally only used in the summer when the woodcutter cut and gathered his wood. By the time the weather turned in late autumn, he was long gone, down in his village, with his stores to sell throughout the winter.

The drafty walls that made it bearable in the heat of the summer let every icy blast of wind through unimpeded. The hearth was cold and damp from over a month's disuse. Still, there was a roof over their heads to keep off the snow and at least the hope they could get a fire started.

Miroku helped Sango slide off Kirara's back and escorted her into the hut, wrapping her in one of their quilts. Minori carried in Shinzu while Hisui trailed in behind her. The girls were bundled with their mother while Miroku and Minori addressed the problem of starting a fire. Miroku found some wood stacked against a wall outside; it was dry enough after he knocked the snow off. He shaved thin strips for kindling with a knife while Minori pulverized some of the shreds to fibers and stacked others loosely over the fibers. She took the flint and steel from one of the baskets and started striking sparks into the pile. It was nerve wracking and tedious, but finally a spark caught. Minori nursed it carefully, slowly feeding slivers to the fitful, smoky fire while Miroku continued to split kindling.

"Daddy, I'm hungry," Shinzu whimpered from her nest beside Sango.

"I know, sweetheart. We all are," Miroku murmured.

Finally, a clear flame arose from the tiny fire. Minori was able to feed larger sticks into the fire. When it was finally established, Miroku went outside to get water while Minori went through the supplies for what was left of the food. They were down to a few handfuls of millet, a couple of turnips and some dried fish. Minori put it before Miroku and Sango and asked, "Do we eat it all now and hope the storm breaks tomorrow, or do we eat just a bit?"

"Half," Sango whispered. "We'll eat half."

Minori put away half the food. What was left was meager, but everyone would have some. To make it go as far as possible, Minori stewed it all together into a gruel in the pot. Miroku took charge of the spoon, passing around mouthfuls until it was gone.

The warm food in their bellies was the only comfort to be had. The little fire did not have a hope of competing with the icy winds that swirled around the hut with each blast of the storm. Their only hope of surviving the night was to stay all huddled together; they laid one quilt on the floor and piled the other quilt and any outer clothes and coats they had on top in a heap. Sango and Miroku were in the middle, the girls curled up next to Sango, and Minori lay back-to-back with Miroku. Kirara curled up next to their feet. Eventually, their combined body heat warmed their nest enough for them to sleep.

The pain of Sango's injuries woke her early the next morning as the first rays of the sun came in through the cracks in the wall. The storm had blown itself out over night, leaving a clear, crisp morning. Puffs of steam drifted in the air as everyone breathed. The girls were still curled against her front. She could feel Miroku's back pressed to hers.

Sitting up carefully, she tried to pop a nasty kink out of her neck and shoulder. She twisted around, stretching, to look over her shoulder and froze, an electric jolt surging through her core. Miroku was curled up around Minori, sound asleep, smiling, with his hand tucked inside her kimono cupping her breast.

Boiling, Sango looked for something hard and heavy. Hiraikotsu was out of reach, so she settled for the cooking pot, slamming it down on Miroku's head.

"Uhh?" Miroku grunted, dazed by the way he was blasted out of a sound sleep.

"So this is what you do the instant my back is turned!" Sango cried, winding up for another swing.

"What?...Augh!" He jumped and scrambled backwards quickly as he realized where his hand was.

"So, what were you doing all night?" Sango hissed.

"Nothing!" he yelped.

"Really. So how did you just happen to have your hand there if you were doing 'nothing'?"

"I don't know! I was asleep! I thought it was you!" Miroku spat out anything his frazzled brain could produce.

"You thought it was... I was righthere. If you wanted to play around all you had to do was roll over. Or am I not good enough?" Sango demanded.

Miroku was sinking fast; no matter what he said, it wasn't going to get better. He gulped like a fish out of water, wondering how he could possibly get out of this in one piece.

Minori blinked sleepily, waking from the noise. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Like you don't know, you harlot!" Sango snarled.

"Harlot!" gasped Minori.

"Nothing is going on," Miroku said firmly.

"Oh, yeah, it's always been nothing toyou to fondle a woman's tit. It doesn't seem to matter which woman, either," retorted Sango

"Wait a minute," Minori cried. "Are you saying he..."

"Had his hand stuffed right in your kimono," snapped Sango. "As if you didn't know. He never can keep his hands where they belong. What else did you check out while you were there?" she asked Miroku pointedly.

"Whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute. Hold it right there. I was asleep." Miroku insisted.

There's nothing quite like a brisk fight to get the blood moving on a cold morning. While Hisui, Shinzu and Kirara watched, bemused, from the sidelines, Sango, Miroku and Minori snapped and snarled their way through breaking camp. Miroku took Kirara out for a few minutes to scope out the path for the day, finally escaping the women's wrath when he returned saying there was a village only a couple of miles away in the direction they were traveling.

------------------------------------------

Now that the contract was in place, InuYasha made a point of visiting his new responsibility frequently. He was walking the streets early in the morning, checking the buildings before his official visit to Masahiro when he was haled from behind.

"Here, now, InuYasha-sama, you're being paid to keep youkai out of this village, are you not?" Kazuo, the village innkeeper, marched down the street through the light layer of snow to InuYasha in a huff, though InuYasha could not imagine why. There had been no hint of youkai around his establishment for as long as InuYasha had been checking.

"Is there a problem?" InuYasha asked. "I haven't seen or smelled youkai for a long time."

"Well, I should think there's a problem when a monk comes to my inn and says it has a cloud over it. He kindly did an exorcism, so it's all right now, but I should not have needed that."

It was the first complaint InuYasha had received since he had started monitoring Masahiro's village. He had even been quietly checking it since just after the harvest, though the contract had just now been formalized. He sniffed the air in the village and thought a moment. Something didn't smell right, and it wasn't the presence of youkai.

"Kazuo-san, may I see your inn? I'd like to see what it was I missed. We wouldn't want it to happen again."

"I should think not!" Kazuo huffed. "Very well, let's do that." He turned and marched back to his inn, still radiating indignation at the shoddy service he was getting.

"Could you tell me about this monk?" InuYasha asked. "There are a lot of fakes wandering around taking in goodhearted innkeepers with tales like that. They do a phony exorcism and graciously accept the innkeeper's offer of lodging and a meal."

Kazuo faltered a moment, then picked up his pace, stiffer than ever. InuYasha caught a brief flash of youkai in the air, a cat.

A cat. "Um, Kazuo-san, did this monk happen to have a woman with him and two little girls?"

Kazuo slowed down. "Er, actually, it's two women and two little girls," he muttered.

"And is there a two-tailed cat with black ears?"

"Umm, yes." Kazuo stopped, looking suddenly foolish. "Do you know them?"

"Oh, yeah, I've known him for years," InuYasha smirked. "He hasn't changed a bit."

Leaving the innkeeper behind, InuYasha strode to the front of the inn, stood with folded arms before the door and bellowed, "Miroku, you bastard! What thehell do you think you're doing screwing up my business?!"

Miroku's head popped out of an upstairs window. "Since when did you claim exclusive rights to exorcism?"

"I would appreciate it if you would play your games outside my territory!" InuYasha called back. "Can't you pay for an inn just once in your life?"

"Your territory! Kaede's village is a day's travel that way." Miroku pointed down the street.

"Her village is just half an hour over the ridge if you go direct. And I don't appreciate you spreading bogus tales of youkai when I'm being paid to keep them out."

"Actually, it was a ghost. Outside of your abilities." Miroku said smoothly.

InuYasha blinked and stared at him, thinking furiously. He was quite sure Miroku was lying again, but that little line could get them both off the hook.

"Right." InuYasha swallowed and decided to accept it, although he felt slimy doing it. "What are you doing here? I thought you were comfortably settled in up north."

"We cleaned our area out and had to move on," explained Miroku. "On the way, we ran afoul of that truly evil bastard running the Hojo castle to the east of here and lost most of our belongings. He decided we were spies and beat Sango up pretty badly trying to get information. I got her out and we've been on the run since then. Kaede's village was the safest place I could think of to go."

"Damn. So why did you have to pull that exorcism stunt?" InuYasha asked.

"I had to lay down some pretty heavy bribes to get us out of his territory in one piece. There's too many of us to just fly on Kirara and I don't dare leave anyone alone. I don't have anything left, so of course I must practice my skills to provide for my family. And Kazuo-san had this ghost, so of course it was mutually beneficial to..." Miroku sounded like he was going to rattle on all day to bolster the ghost story if given a chance.

"Stuff the ghost story, Miroku. Can you travel?"

"Eh?"

"If you're thinking of traveling today, you'd better make it soon," InuYasha declared. "Yuki-onna has been walking the mountains early this year. I can smell the snow from the next storm coming already. It will be here by midday."

Miroku thought about it, frowning. "There's too many of us for Kirara to carry at once. We'd have to come around on foot. As much as I hate to say it, I think we'll have to stay here for one more day."

"It might be longer than that," cautioned InuYasha. "We've had some big blows already this year. I can carry one or two if we need to do it that way."

"Let's do it." Miroku withdrew back into his room while Kazuo and InuYasha went inside.

"InuYasha!" cried Sango, limping over to give him a big hug. Her condition was shocking; her split lip was cracked and bleeding from the relieved smile, the black eye and other bruises were now an ugly assortment of colors ranging from vivid purple through green to an ugly yellow and through the scents of pain, fear and the purging of damaged tissues, InuYasha could tell she was pregnant. The ordeal had left her pale and shaking; the hug quickly slid into clinging to him for support.

The girls were in better shape, uninjured though pale and tired. A lovely young woman InuYasha had never seen before hung back in the doorway beside Kirara, watching him warily. Where had she come from?

InuYasha cast a questioning glance at Miroku who provided introductions.

"InuYasha, this is Minori-sama. She got us out of the castle and is fleeing with us. Minori-sama, this is InuYasha-sama, a very old friend."

InuYasha bowed curtly, which Minori returned hesitantly. "You keep very strange company, Houshi-sama," she murmured.

Minori insisted on keeping her distance from InuYasha, so he ended up carrying Sango and Hiraikotsu. Kirara could handle everyone else. InuYasha led the way, though staying where he could keep an eye on all of them. Sango watched Miroku with jaundiced eyes, marking where he put his hands to steady Minori.

"He just can't miss a chance at a grope, can he?" she said sourly after they had traveled for a few minutes. "I'll bet that hussy refused to ride you just so she could make time with him."

InuYasha glanced back at them and shook his head. "No, it's just the same old crap I get all the time. I'm youkai and can't be trusted not to get hungry half way there. I'd just as soon carry you; you, at least, know better... Hey, you all right?"

Sango had gripped on tighter suddenly, shaking violently, then started sobbing into his shoulder. "Is it finally over? Oh, God, I was starting to think I would never get out!"

"Yeah, in just a few minutes we'll have Kagome tucking some soup into you as you sit next to the fire."

Sango just cried harder, letting the terror flow away with her tears. InuYasha gritted his teeth and picked up the pace a bit. It must have been bad for Sango to collapse like this. She was as tough as they came.

The icy bite of storm winds chased them down the mountain and they landed in front of InuYasha's porch with the first swirls of snow gusting around them.

"Papa!" Tsuchiya jumped up from where he was playing with Shippo to grab InuYasha's leg as he came in the door, riding along on his foot as InuYasha carried Sango to the hearth.

Kagome looked up from setting out dried vegetables to soak as Miroku came in, herding his girls in front of him with Kirara and Minori right behind.

"Oh, my!" She took in the bedraggled, shivering crowd, then herded them in the rest of the way. "In, in, in, over there by the hearth. Oh, Sango-chan, what happened? Never mind, we'll talk about it later. Shippo, could you help me for a while?"

She bustled into action, setting broth and water to warm on the hearth. InuYasha braved the storm for more wood. Shippo fetched comforters and cushions, then started taking down bowls and mugs.

Through all the bustle, Tsuchiya, Hisui and Shinzu stared at each other from across the room. Hisui and Shinzu shared whispers as they discussed the funny-looking kid with the puppy ears. Tsuchiya's ears were pricked hard in their direction and he sniffed at the air avidly for a while before he walked over for a closer look. The girls clammed up immediately, staring at him with big eyes. He looked back for a moment, then grinned and ran back to the other side of the room to hide behind Mama. A moment later, he was peering out again, watching their reaction. Both of them were craning their necks to watch him.

"Tsu-chan, show them your ball," Kagome said, as she maneuvered around him to bring the tea to the hearth.

Tsuchiya ran to his toy box and pulled out the ball, then carried it to where the girls sat.

"My ball! It big bounce!" he announced, then threw it at the floor. It flared into multi-colored lights as it bounced across the room.

"Ohhhh!" The girls were impressed. Hisui took charge of getting them lined up to take turns bouncing the ball.

While the children were safely occupied, Miroku told the story of how they came to be there. "So, to make it short, we've lost pretty much everything and have nowhere to go. We had planned to go back up into the mountains in spring and set up in a new location, but we're stuck until then.

"And Minori-sama?" Kagome asked.

"I just want to settle someplace where I'm safe from Sumio. Any place is a good as another." Minori said wearily. "I'm not particular."

"We'll ask Kaede-baa-chan," Kagome replied reassuringly. We should be able to find a place for you."

Sango did not look pleased with that notion.

-------------------------------------------

The storm blew itself out by the next morning. InuYasha, Miroku and Minori went to visit Kaede, leaving Sango and the children in the warmth of the house. Hisui and Shinzu had relaxed enough overnight to try to recruit Tsuchiya into a game of House with Tsuchiya as the baby. When they ganged up on him to try to dress him up, he took it as a grand game of tug-of-war. Little girl determination had no chance; they were soon in a heap on the floor, with the girls yelling at Tsuchiya as he ran around hooting and waving the hair ribbons they had been trying to put in his hair.

Kagome threw them outdoors to play in the snow under Shippo's supervision. While the girls drew pictures in the snow and started work on a snow-cat, Tsuchiya shook all the bushes to see how much snow he could make fall at once. When he had shaken all the bushes he could reach, he started throwing snow at the girls, who got mad and started pitching snow balls back at him. That was great until he caught a ball full in the face, which made him howl with affronted surprise. By then, the kids were all soaked through, with blue lips and chattering teeth, so their mothers brought them back inside for dry clothes, warm soup and a nap.

Afterward Sango and Kagome indulged in a tete-a-tete over tea. Sango had been giving Kagome her version of the last few days and had just finished relating the unfortunate sleeping incident when InuYasha came back from the village. Sango's eyes narrowed suspiciously when she saw he was alone. "Where's Houshi-sama?" she demanded.

InuYasha blinked at the vehemence of the question. "He and Eiichi are taking Minori over to old man Minoru's house. We're hoping the old man will take her in. Eiichi's been trying to get someone in the house to keep an eye on the old man for years, but he just won't have it."

"What's that got to do with Houshi-sama?"

InuYasha grabbed a tea mug and went to join the women by the fire. "He's along to convince old Minoru that he's providing charity, not accepting it. He might as well do something useful with that silver tongue of his."

Sango growled under her breath as InuYasha got himself some tea. He stared at her a moment as he took his first sip. She sure was prickly about something.

"You should have seen the way he looked at her when he thought I wasn't looking," she muttered venomously to no one in particular. "And now he's found a way to slip off for a while, just him and her."

"Um, they're not exactly alone," InuYasha reminded her. "Eiichi and Minoru are there too." Man, that hot button of hers regarding Miroku and pretty women sure hadn't mellowed any. "Besides, what are you worried about? He's got to be getting plenty of what he wants with you."

Sango flinched indignantly as Kagome gasped and cried, "Sit!"

InuYasha crashed to the floor, his tea flying into the hearth with a loud hiss of steam. When he could peel his astonished face out of the mat, he looked up at Kagome saying, "What?! You mean he hasn't been getting plenty?"

If Sango was scandalized before, it was nothing to the outrage she was radiating now. She looked about to burst from indignation.

Kagome flushed with mortification and cried, "Sit! Sit!**SIT**! Geez! Just when I think you're finally starting to get a clue, you come out and say something like that!"

"But..."

"There are some places you just don't go, and that's one of them," she scolded. "Sheesh, do you go around telling everyone what we're doing?! Don't answer that," she added as an afterthought; if he really was that clueless, she'd just as soon not know. She glared at him anyway, just for good measure.

Grumbling, InuYasha peeled himself off the floor and fished his mug out of the fire. "Are you quite done?" he asked pointedly. The women exchanged glances and decided he had been punished enough.

"All right, then." He shook the kinks out and got himself another mug of tea. "Kurato says he has room for your group, if you don't mind squeezing in a bit. In all truth, it's quieter there than it is here, with Tsuchiya tearing around destroying the place."

1


	23. Chapter 23 A Very Cold Winter

Chapter 23 - A Very Cold Winter 

Every time InuYasha had passed Kagome or Sango for the last couple of weeks, he had found himself pausing and reaching after some subtle little nip of information that would dance around his awareness then escape before he could quite grasp it. That something finally clarified.

Kagome and Sango smelled just exactly alike; or rather, that note in their scents that announced their pregnancies did. Furthermore, that difference in Kagome's pregnant-scent from last time was still there, and intensifying. But what did it mean? Kagome smelled different from last time. Kagome and Sango smelled the same. What could have changed? The only thing he could think of that would change Kagome's scent to be like Sango's would be a change in parentage. The new child had to be wholly human, which meant it wasn't his.

He still couldn't remember through the haze of the last few months having stayed awake long enough to do more than hug Kagome. Of course, she had been swearing the same thing; she was the one who had been the most surprised to find herself pregnant. But still... it had happened somehow. Of course, he had absolutely no proof. Nothing except that damning scent.

By the time InuYasha got back from his rounds at Masahiro's village, his musings had gone from idle wondering through anxious generation of scenarios to morose brooding as he could come up with no answer except different parentage.

Sango was visiting when he got home. He got a healthy nose-full of confirmation as he came in the door, which just made him more sullen.

Kagome's welcoming smile faded as he stared at her with his ears back, then turned away without saying anything.

"Er, did something happen?" she asked tentatively.

"I think that's for you to tell me," he said tightly.

Sango and Kagome looked at each other, then back at InuYasha, mystified.

"A couple of hints would be useful," Kagome suggested.

InuYasha scowled, then looked directly at Kagome. "Can you tell me how it is that you and Sango smell exactly alike?"

Kagome and Sango looked at each other again, still confused.

"Um, we're both women and we're pregnant?" Kagome hazarded.

"Very good. Now, why is it that you don't smell the same as you did last time? And this time you smell just like Sango?" InuYasha stared at her with burning eyes.

Kagome shrugged. "No idea. Different child?"

"Or maybe, different father?" InuYasha growled.

Kagome's jaw dropped.

"I'll talk to you later," Sango said hurriedly to Kagome as she got up and grabbed her coat. "Hope you two get this worked out soon." Then she was through the door and gone.

Finally, the ringing shock paralyzing Kagome dampened enough for her to gasp, "What onearth are you talking about?"

"No! You tell me! Last time you smelled one way. This time another way. And this time's way is justlike Sango! How does that work?!" The anger and hurt of a betrayal throbbed in pounding pulses from him, he looked capable of anything; yet deep in his eyes something pleaded, "_Make it make sense. Give me something to hold on to_."

Kagome gaped at him, numb and helpless. His world of odors and scents, with all of its subtleties, was beyond her. It was like asking a blind man to explain color, a deaf man to describe the ringing of a bell. She had no idea what he had detected and thus could not find the flaw in his logic. But he was wrong, dead wrong. That knowledge was not going to help her now.

"Listen," she said unsteadily, "I can't smell what you smell, so I can't tell you what changed or why. But I swear to you, I have never taken any other man. I have never even considered it. We can't know what's different until the baby is born. Until then, we have to wait." She held his gaze gravely, waiting for him to accept it. But he didn't. With a flash of temper that concealed his hurt, he swept out of the house and into the forest.

Kagome hid her face in her hands, trying to hold back the desperate tears. "Oh, God," she whispered. "What do I do now?"

--------------------

Sango bolted from InuYasha's house and fled down the stairs to the village, pausing only long enough to collect her girls from the field where they were playing with Shippo and Tsuchiya. InuYasha's accusation was still ringing in her ears. It was absolutely incredible. Who would have the unadulterated gall to mess with InuYasha's wife? Everyone knew how jealous he was. Who could be so crass?

She rounded a corner and entered the village square. Across the square, she saw Miroku walking beside that Minori woman, carrying her basket for her and talking and laughing in a flirtatious banter. He didn't see her as he walked the edge of the square and disappeared up an alley that led to old Minoru's small house. He reappeared about a minute later, looking quite pleased with his world, then saw Sango watching him with thunderclouds gathering around her.

"_... smells just like Sango ... just like Sango..._"

Miroku smiled brightly, then turned to walked across the square them. "Ah, my favorite ladies. I wasn't expecting you to return so soon."

"So I saw," Sango said grimly. " 'Your favorite ladies' perhaps, but not your only ones?"

Miroku paused suddenly, startled. "Ahh... You mean Minori-sama just now?" he asked. "I was just helping her select some restorative herbs for Minoru-san. The cold has been affecting his chi."

"._.. like Sango ... like Sango ... Sango ... Sango ..._"

"Oh. Has it?" she asked stiffly.

He looked at her, frowning. "All I did was help a lady who is new to the village find the herbalist, then escort her back home. We passed the time with a couple of laughs. Nothing else happened.

"I have witnesses," he added dryly.

"One more thing," Sango said sternly.

"All right." Miroku waited patiently.

"I just came from visiting Kagome. InuYasha came in and asked how it was that Kagome and I smelled exactly alike in our pregnant scents. She didn't smell like me last time. She does this time." She scowled at Miroku, watching his reactions.

Miroku frowned and thought about it for a moment. He didn't see any connection to himself.

"And you're tellingme this because...?" he prompted.

"I'm wondering if you had something to do with it." Sango snapped.

"**What**" Miroku was dumbfounded. Of all the crazy, wild-eyed notions Sango had come up with, this was by far the worst. "This is the first time I've seen Kagome since she visited our house after the miscarriage. Just how do you think I could have...?"

"Well, you've taken Kirara out on errands a few times. Maybe you included a couple of detours."

This needed to be nipped in the bud right now. "For your information, my dear, I have not done any of the things you have accused me of, and I deeply resent your implications. You owe me an apology."

"We'll see about that. I want proof first."

Proof. Miroku stared at his implacable wife in dismay. How the hell was he supposed to provide proof of something that didn't happen?

--------------------

The only thing to do was to go to the source. The next day, about midmorning, Miroku climbed the hill to InuYasha's house. A distracted Kagome greeted him at the door and invited him in.

"Is InuYasha around?" Miroku asked, looking around.

"No, not at the moment," Kagome replied shakily. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"What's the deal with this crazy story Sango came home with yesterday saying you and she smelled alike? She's as good as accused me of having an affair with you."

Kagome winced and hugged herself miserably. "And to think I thought it couldn't get any worse," she murmured.

"Will you please tell me what's going on?"

Kagome sighed as she pulled the kettle from the fire and poured tea for both of them. "I wish I knew. It doesn't make any sense to me either.

"When InuYasha came home yesterday, he came in and asked me why Sango and I smelled the same. He implied it was because he thought both babies had human fathers. I swear I have never been unfaithful." She snorted softly. "Like I'd have the energy, trying to keep up with Tsuchiya. I have no idea what he's smelling, but it isn't that.

"But try telling him that. You know what he's like. Once he gets an idea stuck in his head, you might as well be talking to a rock."

--------------------

It had been too good to be true. Deep down, InuYasha had always known that; always known that the sweetness he had held would go bitter on him soon. It always did. Hanyous were not permitted love. He had hoped he could cheat fate for longer than this, but the reckoning had come. It was time to pay.

He stared sullenly across the snow-laden forest from his perch in the branch of a large pine tree. He hadn't though Kagome capable of this. He had been expecting some messy death to strike her, that's what he usually got, but adultery... She had found him lacking and gone elsewhere. It was so mundane, but the blow to his gut hurt just as much.

Shippo had already been by to tell him he was being an idiot. He told Shippo the time he was an idiot was before, when he had believed he could be married and happy.

So now what? He had absolutely no clue. Sitting in the tree worked for now.

"InuYasha!"

InuYasha looked down to see Miroku standing below him.

"InuYasha, we need to talk!"

Yeah, right. What could talking fix? So Kagome had sent Miroku to talk to him, had she? InuYasha looked back out across the trees. The priest didn't have anything to say that could change his mind.

"InuYasha, I don't know what the hell you're smelling or what it means, but this has gone way too far. You're breaking Kagome-sama's heart and you're destroying my marriage. Sango has taken it into her head that I'm involved. This is the first time I've been here in over a year. There's no way I could be involved. I would appreciate you telling that to Sango, since she won't believe me. You owe me that much. And Kagome-sama has stood beside you through everything you've done to her, even including Kikyo, and you owe it to her to at least wait to see..."

InuYasha's temper flared at the reminder about Kikyo; he rapped his heel sharply onto the branch in which he was sitting. All of the snow on the branch broke free and plummeted down onto Miroku's head in an icy deluge.

"If that's the way you're going to be, there's no point talking to you." Miroku observed coldly. He shook off the snow and trudged back toward the village.

InuYasha glared after him, then resumed his stony stare out across the trees.

--------------------

Kagome decided the best thing to do about Miroku's situation was to talk to Sango herself. They had been close friends for years; Sango knew as well as anyone that she wasn't interested in anyone but InuYasha.

Sango did not look pleased to see her when Kagome arrived at the house Miroku and Sango were lodging in. She stood in the doorway with agate-hard eyes and set jaw, flustering Kagome with her harshness.

"L-Look, Sango-chan," Kagome pleaded, "I... I don't have any idea what InuYasha is smelling, but I can promise you that Miroku-sama has nothing to do with it. Until you came in the door in that snowstorm, I hadn't seen either of you for over a year. Just because InuYasha is being a fool, it doesn't mean we have to do the same. So please, let's just wait this out and make our decisions after the babies are born, OK?"

"Oh, I'll be waiting it out, all right," Sango said coldly. "Until then..." She withdrew back into the house, letting the screen fall into place behind her.

Kagome stood before the door, blinking back her tears. Wouldn't anyone listen to her?

--------------------

With the next storm brewing in the hills, InuYasha's protective instincts took over and he returned to his house carrying a large armful of firewood. He crouched down by the fire to build it up as the wind swooped in to rattle the eaves.

"Papa!" Tsuchiya cried joyfully, slamming into him then climbing into his lap.

"Hey," InuYasha replied, "You been a good boy for your mother?"

Tsuchiya ignored the question and insisted on getting a ride on his knee.

"Well, the house is still standing," Kagome said wryly, sitting down beside him.

He smiled briefly, but didn't look at her or acknowledge her in any other way. She continued to sit for a while, waiting for him to make the next move, then gave up and dished him some food left from dinner. He wouldn't take it from her hand, so she left it beside him and retreated.

He picked up the food when she caught Tsuchiya to get him ready for bed.

Once she had Tsuchiya settled, she fetched the comb and brush and approached InuYasha to clean up his hair.

"No," he protested, "not that." Don't touch me.

She stood and considered a moment, then made a decision. Grabbing his side-locks to make him look at her, she said fiercely, "Listen to me. We have a lot months to go before we know the answer to what you're smelling. You can make this easy, or you can make this hard, but I will not be treated like this. I have not been unfaithful and I resent you assuming I was. It's your turn to suck it up and deal and you better start doing it."

"My turn to...!" he stammered. "You've got a lot of nerve to..."

"No," she interrupted, "you do. I've done nothing wrong and you're acting like I'm a criminal. Now, I'm going to act like everything is normal until this baby is born and you are too. After that, when we know what there is to know, then we can talk. Deal?" For all her fierceness, her glare came through eyes brimming with tears.

He still couldn't deal with her tears. Rattled, he nodded agreement.

--------------------

InuYasha's doubts not withstanding, his protective instincts, reinforced by the vow bound to his ring, required that he continue to provide for the safety and comfort of his family. The vow did not, however, bind his tongue. He vented his feelings and suspicions frequently, sparking fights and stressing Kagome's already fragile temper. She stomped off into the woods on at least three occasions intending to jump through the well to take some time off with her family, but the depth of the snow in the forest thwarted her each time. On the last occasion, she wrenched her knee slipping on a hidden branch and InuYasha had to carry her back to the house, to the extreme displeasure of both of them.

Meanwhile, the story had traveled throughout the village. Kagome was treated with increasing distance and reserve each time she went to the village for provisions. Easy courtesy became very formal, no one lingered to chat and Kagome felt like silent eyes were following her wherever she went. The only people that seemed unaffected were Kaede, Shippo and Miroku, who was walking under his own cloud of shame.

And still the storms came. Snow piled higher and higher, people could only navigate the paths between buildings that were regularly stomped down, and then only when there was a break in the storms.

InuYasha entered his house in the early morning after a tour of the village perimeter, carrying wood and a bucket of water so Kagome could start breakfast. He looked at Kagome's swelling figure for a moment as she pulled a frying pan off a shelf and asked, "How much longer until the baby comes?"

Kagome paused to count, then said, "About two more months."

"Still? It's taking long enough. I can hardly wait to see what your explanation is going to be after we see this kid."

Kagome clenched her fists, holding the pan in a shaking hand, as her temper cracked under the latest assault.

"Sit!" she snapped.

InuYasha smashed to the floor with a sharp jerk from the rosary.

Tsuchiya, who had been sitting by the fire waiting for his breakfast, giggled and pointed at InuYasha. "Papa fall down."

InuYasha dragged his head out of the mat and pointed a claw at Tsuchiya, growling, "You shut it."

"You know, he's not the only one that should shut up." Kagome snapped. "You could stand to shut up too. I'm sick of listening to your sniping."

InuYasha turned his attention to her. "Well, maybe I'm sick of you pretending that you've done nothing wrong."

Kagome shifted her grip on the frying pan in her hand and brought it crashing down on his head.

"One more word from you and you're..." she growled ominously.

"And I'm what?!" he snarled back, standing up to glare down into her face, nose to nose.

"Out of here," she snapped, gripping his kimono, then releasing a surge of spiritual power that blasted him out the door and into a tree across the field. The shock of his impact knocked the tree's entire load of snow down onto him, burying him in an icy deluge.

"That should cool you off for a while," Kagome muttered grimly, as she turned away from the door to resume her chores.

InuYasha dug himself out of the snow and shook himself off. Every inch of him was tingling pins and needles, but whether from it was from Kagome's power surge or his snow bath, he couldn't tell. Damn, that woman packed a punch when she was riled.

Why wouldn't she just admit her transgression so they could move on? He'd forgive her; he was pretty sure of that. But no, she insisted on that ridiculous story that nothing was amiss and was doing her best to force it down his throat. Seething in a foul temper, he stomped off toward the village for his daily meeting with Kaede.

Down below, the villagers were scurrying from their houses to their storage sheds and the well, restocking their wood and food supplies and fetching water. They had learned that, this winter, one took those opportunities whenever they arrived.

InuYasha was halfway down the stairs when several swift furtive shapes darted from the forest into the village, soon followed by terrified shrieks and screams for help. He launched himself down the stairs in one leap and crossed the village over the rooftops to find Minori with her back to a tree, cut off from any shelter by several wolves. She was desperately swinging her water bucket to keep them back, but there were too many for her to fend off alone.

The wolves didn't stand a chance against InuYasha's claws. Five wolves were dead and three had fled in the blink of an eye.

InuYasha escorted the shaken Minori back to her house and made sure she and old Minoru had all of their needs covered, then returned to the cluster of dead wolves. Their trail showed they had come from the mountains to the northwest.

Ears back as his temper flared again, he slung the wolves over his shoulder and took off toward the mountain stronghold of the wolf clan. Someone was way overdue for a little visit.

The pathway there was much harder than he had reckoned on. If the snow in the valleys this winter was deep, it was nothing to what was building up on the ledges and peaks of the mountains. Avalanches from the heights had clogged all the canyons, burying most of the landmarks under vast drift and billows of snow and fallen trees. Loose snow drifted and swirled from the cliffs, blown down by winds on the peaks. Eerie booms echoed down the canyons announcing other snowslides in the distance. Nearer in, the trees and snow creaked ominously around him as he climbed up the canyon to the pass.

He caught a glimpse of a swirl of black hair that resolved into a windswept bush, bare of its leaves for the winter; dark eyes that blinked at him from a ledge became a pair of rocks peeping through the snow. The swirling snowflakes took on the shape of a dancing woman's kimono, then blew on down the ravine. The breath of the wind around him grew icier and the feeling he was being watched, stalked, grew ever stronger. Clouds closed in as he reached the summit, intensifying the feeling he was departing from the world. The watcher came closer.

InuYasha worked his way over the top of the pass and started down the other side, following a path he knew from memory, not sight. The wolves draped on his shoulder had long since lost their warmth and were becoming stiff blocks of ice.

Smoky, rippling dark hair and fathomless black eyes formed before him, appearing through mists that melded into the shape of a slender woman who reached out for him with longing. Snarling, he leaped back and vaulted over her head, hastening down the trail into the wolf-clan's ravine. The wind moaned sorrowfully after him, then laughter echoed from the walls of the cliff. The icy wind sharpened as the phantom resumed her hunt.

InuYasha scrambled the rest of the way down the cliff and planted himself in a clearing that he knew was close to the wolf-clan's hidden den. Knowing his approach had been observed, he threw down the dead wolves and bellowed to the cliffs, "I want to see Koga, front and center! NOW!"

He stood with his arms folded, glaring belligerently about as clans-men appeared around him, growling sullen anger at his load. Koga appeared from the vicinity of a frozen-over waterfall to stand before him, looking with outrage at the dead wolves at his feet.

InuYasha leaned into Koga's face and snarled, "Let's get this straight right now! My village is not a hunting ground for your mangy curs and if I find any more crossing my borders, I'm going to kill them on the spot! Have I made myself clear or do I need to do a demonstration here?"

Koga took a closer look at the dead wolves, then answered coolly, "Those aren't mine. I don't know where they came from, but all of my people are here."

InuYasha kicked over the wolves so Koga could get a better look. "Are you sure? Their path led right back up here."

Koga looked askance at him. "Yeah I'm sure. You think I don't know my own underlings? I don't know what put that burr up your butt, but you're not taking it out on my people."

InuYasha looked over the group surrounding him. He didn't know Koga's new group, but he did remember what was left of his old gang. And those seemed to be missing. "If 'everyone is here', then where are your old pals, Ginta and ... what's-his-name?"

"Hakkaku?" Koga prompted. "Before you so rudely interrupted, we were heading out to check on a report of a possible deer carcass over the next ridge. One of the lookouts spotted it earlier. I sent them on ahead while I dealt with you."

A chill ran through InuYasha. Premonitions of danger echoed in him as he remembered his path over the mountains. He smelled the icy biting tang of fresh snow in the air and looked up the cliffs to see the clouds closing in. As much as he personally disliked Koga, he had no quarrel with his long-time minions.

"We have to get them off the mountain now," he snapped. "Yuki-onna is hunting on the ridge. I passed her on the way in."

"Shit!" Koga growled, "They won't stand a chance against her."

InuYasha studied the cliffs edging the wolf-clan's ravine. The shadows were getting deeper in the canyon, and not just because the clouds were thickening. They had maybe an hour and a half of daylight left, then Yuki-onna would be completely unfettered.

"Let's move," he said briskly, "Nightfall will be here soon enough."

Koga took off at his usual run up the path on the cliff face behind him, InuYasha on his heels.

--------------------

Kagome stood at the doorway of her house, looking out across the snowy field fronting it to the trees of the forest beyond. She searched especially hard through the branches of the trees, looking for a sulky figure in red hiding in their heights, but he wasn't there.

As the afternoon had waned, she had sent Shippo out to look for him. If he wanted to sulk in the forest for the day, she wasn't going to stop him, but she wanted to know where he was and that he was safe. She wanted him inside for the night.

Nothing moved in the crystalline silence of the late afternoon, not even a bird. Trying to keep her nerves in check, she continued to scan the trees. He was probably just out of sight, watching her fret. They had been doing a lot of that lately.

Something moved over the trees, growing to resolve into Shippo riding in on his little toy horse. He landed just at the edge of the porch, then pocketed the transformed horse.

"Did you find him?" she asked, unable to contain her worry any longer.

He shook his head. "Not a sign. No one's seen him since this morning. Some wolves attacked Minori as she was fetching water. She said he killed a bunch of them. I looked and found the spot, but the wolves and InuYasha are gone. It looks like he followed their trail up into the mountains."

Kagome bit her lip, becoming more and more worried. Had he forgotten what night it was?

--------------------

Koga and InuYasha found Ginta and Hakkaku's trail readily enough, but as they hastened along it, it grew rapidly fainter, filling in with loose snow blown into the tracks. It would appear that Yuki-onna had already marked them.

Icy swirls of wind curled around them, stroking their hair, caressing their ears and noses, tugging at their clothes. The trail continued to grow fainter, and when InuYasha looked behind him, he found their trail also being erased.

"Koga, how well can you find your way back to your den?" he asked as another skirl of wind pushed even more snow in their tracks.

Koga snorted. "Blindfolded in a driving wind. Why?"

"That may be the way we're going back," InuYasha answered. "Yuki-onna has found us, too."

Koga glanced back along their trail through the mists and drifts of falling snow. "Huh. We must be getting close. Do you hear anything?"

InuYasha strained his ears, turning them this way and that. The wind sighed and crooned around them, drowning out other sounds; the mists grew heavier, the trees around them faded from view; there was nothing to smell, nothing to feel, his face and fingers were growing numb. He had long since failed to feel his feet. He could feel Yuki-onna's eyes on them, watching from somewhere to the left.

"That way," he pointed. "She's right there."

"Yeah," Koga said slowly, "if she's not leading us away from them." He turned that way anyway; they didn't have anything else to go on.

A tree appeared from the mists as they trudged in their chosen direction. They saw two forms sitting against its trunk, then a swirl of mist and snow obscured their vision as a woman turned around to face them, with misty translucent skin, deep black eyes and a sweep of long black hair that rippled in the wind. She was wearing a billowing kimono of misty gray spangled with drifts of glimmering snowflakes.

"So lonely," she sighed, reaching out to them, "Stay with me." Wind swirled around them, pushing them forward into her embrace.

InuYasha dug in his heels, then darted sideways around her to the base of the tree. The forms were Ginta and Hakkaku, slumped against the tree, the breath barely rising from them. A few more minutes and they would have been lost, not that they were out of danger yet. He looked up to see Koga push Yuki-onna to the side, then join him at the tree.

"They're alive, barely," he reported, lifting Ginta while Koga took up Hakkaku.

"Time to bail," Koga said, as the wind intensified in their faces. The clouds and snow congealed into a solid wall of white. Yuki-onna would not give them up easily.

"After you. You'd better be right about finding your way back." InuYasha settled Ginta more firmly on his shoulder and followed Koga's dim shape as he turned back toward the den.

The gale became a solid force, battering them back and flinging stinging crystals of ice in their eyes and noses. Invisible hands snatched at their clothes, put rocks and branches in their path to trip them, the wind direction changed continually, pushing now from the right, now from behind, wailing and calling through the branches of unseen trees, chuckling from the rocks as whirlwinds sought to spin them about. Yuki-onna flirted and teased, sighing from the hillsides and dancing around them, her misty gray kimono swirling before them like a veil, hiding the rocks and trees at crucial moments to muddle their path. They heard her laugh softly as another gust of mist swirled around them, just as Koga stepped from the edge of a cliff into a precipitous slide to ledge below.

InuYasha stopped barely in time, then heard Koga's voice from below saying shakily, "Shit! Well, that's one way to find the trail."

"Where's the real way down?" InuYasha called after him. "I wouldn't want to drop Ginta on the first step."

"To your right about a hundred feet, then double back down the cliff. I'll wait for you here."

Great. Inuyasha counted forty cautious paces, then felt around for the trail. Yuki-onna flung ever more snow in his face. He must be very close. There, a scarcely visible track drifting down the cliff to his left. He sidled onto it walking carefully with one hand trailing along the rock to his left. The wind screamed and buffeted him as he descended; Yuki-onna was getting angry. Koga's form appeared from the mists, watching up the trail. He turned as InuYasha arrived and led the way down the cliff. They reached the bottom in a howling blizzard, then Koga turned up the ravine toward the frozen waterfall. Darkness descended as they worked their way along the riverside. Koga led him across the ice to the other side of the river, up to the very edge of the ice sheet that was normally falling water, then he vanished behind the ice.

InuYasha followed him into a large cave behind the waterfall. This was the first time he had actually been in the wolf-clan's strong hold. This wasn't the ordinary hollow one often found behind waterfalls; the cave complex was extensive. And well-populated; Koga had acquired a sizable following in the last few years.

The glances of the clansmen were not friendly as he arrived; they were evidently hanging on to their grudge about the dead wolves. Even the sight of Ginta across his shoulder was not mollifying them. He stared back defiantly, giving no quarter as he strode in behind Koga, who moved to the back of the cave and laid Hakkaku on a pile of skins. InuYasha laid Ginta beside him, then paused to shake the snow out of his clothes and hair.

The clansmen moved in closer to form a ring around him, looking closer and sniffing the air.

"Human," one of them declared, looking at him speculatively.

"Yeah? What of it?" InuYasha retorted, staring right back in his eyes without the slightest sign of fear.

"Tasty," another said, licking his lips as his stomach rumbled.

InuYasha shrugged, unconcerned, and looked around the ring. "First, you have to get close enough for that to mean something," he declared, one eyebrow cocked as he stared them down.

Koga listened from the sidelines as he looked over his old friends, but stayed out of it for now. Some things were better handled directly, and InuYasha stood a better chance of surviving the night if he faced them down himself. InuYasha might be lacking in a lot of things, but balls wasn't one of them.

The wolf-clan shifted and shuffled as InuYasha eyed them. His glance remained sharp and direct as he waited for one of them to make a move; still there was no scent of fear, no hesitation. The clan didn't like it; it was unnatural for a simple human to be this unworried when surrounded by a ring of predators. He had to know something they didn't. Slowly, they backed down and slunk away to the farther corners of the cave.

InuYasha sat down beside Koga after the clan had retreated and quietly asked, "Just how hungry are you up here?"

"It's bad," Koga replied. "All of the game has gone down to the valleys and the plains. We haven't seen anything bigger than a bird up here for weeks."

InuYasha thought silently for a while, then said, "How much control do you have of the clan? Can you keep your people out of my villages?"

"What are you thinking, Dog-boy?" Koga muttered.

"If you can keep that mangy lot in the forest, there's game to be found. Deer, boar, game-birds like pheasant. But, if even one of you strays into my villages, the deal is off and I will personally clean house on as many of you as I can find." His dark eyes locked with Koga's, daring him to think he wouldn't.

Koga studied him, considering. Damn, he was a queer one. That mouth gave the impression his greatest joy in life was picking a fight, then he comes up with stuff like this when he finds you in a pinch. Could he control his people? That was the real question, wasn't it?

"Can you keep your people in the villages?" Koga countered. "We wouldn't want any unfortunate incidents in the forest."

"All of our provisions are in the villages. The snow is banked almost to the eaves of the houses now. They have no reason to go to the forest."

"We should be able to make this work." Koga replied. "Mark out where your people can be expected to be found and we'll steer clear of it."

Yuki-onna spent the night howling and clawing at the waterfall, but she left at dawn. InuYasha ventured out of the cave as the sun rose over the cliff face. The clouds had cleared, leaving a brilliantly sparkling landscape. He took his leave of Koga in the wide clearing below the waterfall, cautioning him to wait a day before he brought his people down, so InuYasha could herd any strays back into the villages.

--------------------

InuYasha did a perimeter check of the villages in his care before he descended from the ridges to return to his home. Kagome saw him before he had even left the shelter of the trees and ran across the field to tackle him in a fierce hug. She clung to him, shaking, for a long time, then broke down in tears. "Where were you?" she demanded. "I was so worried. How did you make it through the night? You have no idea how scared I was, not knowing..."

InuYasha held her against him, laying his cheek in her head and breathing in the scent of her hair. She did still care, didn't she? How much did it really matter what the origin of this new child was?

1


	24. Chapter 24 Spring Thaw

Chapter 24 - Spring Thaw 

Kagome sighed and looked at her food stores again. She was absolutely sick of dried and preserved foods. She had reached the point where she would do nearly anything for something fresh and green, even brave a trip to the village. While she was there, she could check in with Kaede-baa-chan. She had been feeling a few twinges off and on for a couple of days, and was becoming very anxious to get this child delivered.

She looked out the door briefly as she made her preparations. The winter's weather had been so dreadful for so long she never made a move if it looked even slightly chancy.

February had dragged into March and the only change had been that the temperature rose enough to produce sleet instead of snow. Midday sunlight turned the surrounding snow to slush, only to have it freeze solid as soon as the afternoon shadows hit it. Icicles grew to unimagined lengths, often spanning from the eaves to the ground in gleaming glass bars that sparkled rainbows in the sunlight, but threatened death if you tarried under them.

As March waned and April approached, bare spots of mud began to appear in the paths. The first venturesome birds arrived in still-bare trees and buds began to swell. The plum trees that normally blossomed in February finally found the courage to put out their flowers, only to have them encased in ice when a freezing rain blew through.

Even so, signs of Spring persisted; grass started peeping through the mud, the bushes acquired a faint green haze, and the clouds lost that heavy leaden look of snow. The pine trees shook free of their heavy burden of snow to stand tall and dark against the sky.

Today was warm and soft, with blue skies, the odd fluffy cloud and a definite smell of young, growing things in the air. Kagome walked to the stairs to check their condition; she wanted to make sure she could make it down and back up without risking a fatal spill on the ice. They were sodden with slushy mud, but the ice was gone. Feeling cheerful, she caught Tsuchiya up from the puddle in which he was stomping and took him inside for clean clothes, although she knew it was a futile gesture; he would be a mud-pie by the time they got back.

She started with the visit to Kaede. Here, at least, she could count on a friendly reception. Kaede was in her garden, setting out the first seeds of the season, while Miroku leaned on the fence, chatting. It seemed he, too, was longing for a friendly face.

"Kaa-baa!" Tsuchiya squealed, running around the fence for a hug and and ear rub.

"Good morning, Kaede-baa-chan, Miroku-sama," Kagome cried as she approached. "Isn't it a beautiful day?"

"Good morning, Kagome-sama," Miroku replied, the essence of courtly manners. The reserved caution in his manner was prudent, but uncomfortable. Half the village was still treating them like they were clandestine lovers.

"How is Sango-chan these days?" asked Kagome. Sango had delivered her child, another girl, about two weeks earlier, just as March had closed. Kagome had heard rumors it was a difficult delivery.

"Much better, thank you," Miroku replied. "It's a good thing she's a strong woman."

"And the baby?"

"Hato is as pretty a little girl as you could hope for," he said fondly.

"Did you hear?" Kagome said to Tsuchiya. "Shinju and Hisui have a new little sister. What do you think we'll get for you, a brother or a sister?"

Tsuchiya ignored the question, being lost in the bliss of his ear rub.

Kagome sighed, then returned to talking to Miroku.

"I do still have some clothes from when Tsuchiya was very little. I know you lost all of your things and I'd love to help out."

"I know," Miroku sighed. "And thank you. But let's wait until you deliver. Sango will be more agreeable then."

"Oh," Kagome replied, dejected. "All right."

Miroku took his leave at this point; he was limiting the amount of time he and Kagome were seen together.

"A pleasure to see you, ladies," he said bowing gracefully, then he ambled away.

Kagome and Kaede watched him go.

"It just isn't right," Kagome complained. "It's all nothing by rumor. No oneknows anything, and still..."

"Ah, well, we'll all know the truth soon enough," Kaede replied bracingly. "It looks to me like that baby has dropped."

"Do you think so?" Kagome asked eagerly. "I've been feeling twinges for a couple of days."

"Hmm, well, let's check you out." Kaede led Kagome into her house for a quick examination.

"Yes, I think this one will be here very soon," she concluded.

"Oh, good," Kagome exclaimed. "I can hardly wait for this to be over."

"Keep me posted," Kaede assured her. "I'll be waiting."

Kagome took her leave and turned toward Masao-san's vegetable stall, hoping to find some fresh greens.

On the way through the square, Tsuchiya slipped from her hand and ran over to watch Aki, another little boy, play with his top. By the time Kagome caught up with him, Aki was letting Tsuchiya hold the top as he showed him the pictures painted on its sides.

"I like top!" Tsuchiya said, beaming up at her.

"Yes, it is pretty, isn't it?" Kagome said. "Let's thank Aki-kun for letting you hold it and give it back now. We need to go to Masao-san's for vegetables."

"Nooooo! My top!" Tsuchiya cried, his face crumpling.

Uh-oh. Tsuchiya had only the haziest understanding of what "mine" meant and tried to use it to claim many things that caught his eye.

"No dear," Kagome said carefully. "Aki-kun was very nice and let you see his top. He did not give it to you."

Tsuchiya hugged the top close to his chest and tried to bolt, but was foiled when Kagome snatched his suspenders and reeled him back, howling.

"Noo! No! It's mine! My top! Nooo!" He squirmed and flailed as Kagome wrestled the top out of his grasp to hand it back to the wide-eyed Aki.

"EeeeEE**EEE**EEEeeeeee!YAAAAAH!"

"Kagome-sama, if he wants it that bad..." Aki started.

"Thank you for the offer, Aki-kun, but he needs to learn what 'mine' really means", Kagome explained over Tsuchiya's shrieks. "And he needs to learn screaming won't get him anything."

Spinning into a complete melt-down, Tsuchiya slashed out at Kagome's face; Kagome snapped up her arm to guard herself, receiving several ugly gashes. Gritting her teeth, she fished into her pocket, pulled out an ofuda and slapped it on his head. His muscles went limp, which just infuriated him more. His shrieks flew up the scale into ear-shattering range as Kagome slung him over her shoulder and turned for home. So much for fresh greens.

Tsuchiya was still screaming like a steam whistle as Kagome passed through the door of her house.

"Miiiiine!" he screeched one last time as Kagome put him down amid another gale of tears and sobs. Kagome was already half-deaf from the trip up the hill with him, he was starting to lose his effectiveness. He threw himself on the ground, kicking, for the last spasms of the tantrum.

Kagome got down the med-kit to clean out her scratches. The antiseptic stung painfully, but she stoically continued to patch herself up. Meanwhile, Tsuchiya's screams were taking on a stretched, frantic note; he had reached the limit of his ability to control himself. Kagome realized he would profit from some food and a nap.

For the last three days, the only food she had been able to get into him had been noodles. She refreshed some leftover noodles with a ladle-full of hot broth and sprinkled some dried fish flakes over it. By the time it was ready, Tsuchiya's tantrum had collapsed into snuffles and hiccups. He sat morosely by the hearth, sliding rebellious glances toward the door, as though he was plotting escape but didn't have the energy to carry it off.

Kagome sat beside him with a bowl and chopsticks and said, "How about some nice noodles? You'll feel better."

"No noo-noos," he grumped.

Kagome studied him. Was that a real "no" or a "wheedle-me-and-I-might"? He desperately needed something in his stomach.

"Mmmmmm," she said, eating a small bite herself. "They're really good." She poked a bite-full at him.

He shoved her hand back and looked away. "No want noo-noos." It still didn't sound like a real "no".

"Are you sure?" Kagome dangled the noodles in front of him, dancing them in and out then touching his mouth.

He smacked her hand aside then grabbed the bowl of noodles and threw it across the room. OK, that was a definite "no". It was also out-of-bounds behavior.

"All right, young man, you are going to sit over here until you can be a good boy." Kagome plopped him on his futon and gave him his blanket and monkey doll.

He snuffled whimpering little sobs, but knew better than to move from his bed. The last time he had tried that, he had been unceremoniously dumped behind a screen with a barrier spell set on it. He cuddled under his blanket with his stuffed monkey and in a remarkably short time was sound asleep.

Kagome sighed with relief, then turned her attention to cleaning up the noodles which were now draped all over the household shrine.

She was still fishing noodles out of the fancy grillwork on the shrine when she felt the twinges pick up again. At first, she attributed it to all the stooping and rising she was doing while she gathered the scattered noodles and wiped off the shrine and its memorials, but it was soon apparent there was a rhythm to the twinges. She fetched a pail of water and a cloth, then gasped as the belly tightened then released with a building purpose. Was the baby on the way? She finished wiping down the shrine and its contents. By the time she was done, she was sure; labor had commenced.

"Shippo?" she called softly.

The little fox came out of his den where he had been enjoying the quiet of Tsuchiya's nap. He yawned hugely and stretched, then asked, "What's up?"

"I think the baby's coming. Would you please go tell Kaede-baa-chan?"

"Uh..." Shippo looked with alarm at Tsuchiya, who was still sleeping in the corner, and paused, thinking hard.

"Just go tell Kaede-baa-chan," Kagome urged. "We'll work out the details later. We probably have hours."

Shippo used his own initiative to track down InuYasha. They arrived as Kaede was finishing her preparations of the birthing area. She handed a very sleepy Tsuchiya to InuYasha, along with his toy monkey and blanket.

InuYasha gazed through the door at Kagome for a long moment, his eyes filled with dread. Now that they had arrived at the moment of truth, he feared the answer more than he anticipated it. Kagome met his eyes, measure for measure, calmly confident.

He came back to himself at last, saying, "I'll take Tsuchiya to your mother until this is over. I'll be back soon." Then he was gone.

Kagome gasped as another contraction rippled through her. This baby was coming faster than last time.

------------------------------------------------

InuYasha finally made it back to take his place, bristling, on the porch beside the door. Shippo was already there, and reported that labor was progressing quickly.

"Hmph," he grunted, glowering out across the forest with his ears back.

Shippo looked at him, exasperated.

"What are you pissed off about now?" he demanded. Shippo had had more than enough of InuYasha's moods over the last few months.

"That grand-jerk of Kagome's asked me if I was looking forward to finally having an excuse to abandon her," InuYasha snarled.

"Well, that's sort of the way you've been acting," Shippo scolded sternly. "You really don't have anything to support your story. You better start working on your apology if you want Kagome to take you back."

"My apol...," InuYasha sputtered. "Why would I need an apology?"

Shippo glared at him, righteously indignant in Kagome's place. "Because you have been absolutely awful to her for months. 'Oops, I'm sorry, I guess I was wrong' isn't going to cut it."

That rattled him like nothing else had. Shippo had steadfastly maintained her innocence throughout the winter. If InuYasha were wrong...

"You... you think she won't take me back?"

"Well, it were me, I wouldn't." Shippo stated shortly.

InuYasha swallowed hard, deeply sobered. During all this time that he had been brooding over whether or not he'd take her back, he had never once considered whether or not she would forgive him. Something in his stomach lurched and fought to escape.

------------------------------------------------

Another powerful contraction washed over Kagome, leaving her soaked in sweat.

"That's it," Kaede coached. "The baby's on the way now. Just a few good pushes and you're done."

Kagome rallied her focus and concentrated on pushing. One..., and the head was through; two..., and the shoulders were visible; three..., four..., five..., and the baby slithered into Kaede's waiting hands. Kagome caught her breath as the contractions let up in their intensity.

"Good girl. A nice easy delivery. You have a little girl."

A girl.

"Weeh... Weh!" She took her first breaths, coughed a bit as Kaede thumped her back, then settled into a raspy breathing.

"Can I see?" Kagome asked, anxious for her first look at this little mite.

"Just a moment. Let me dry her off; she's very slippery."

A few moments later, Kagome had her daughter placed on her belly. She looked at another little fuzzy black head with dog's ears plastered limply to her skull, claws tipping tiny hands, a well-made body. This baby wasn't screaming; instead, she struggled to raise her head and look at her wide new world.

Kaede helped Kagome sit up with the baby propped on her legs. Kagome stared in wonder as the baby gazed back, frowning in concentration as she struggled to get her eyes tracking in the same direction. Finally, she was satisfied; she looked long into Kagome's eyes, piercing her with an ancient and measuring gaze. Then she looked away, taking in the rest of the room.

"Shall I take her out to InuYasha while we get you cleaned up?" Kaede asked.

Kagome nodded. It was time to finish this.

------------------------------------------------

Kaede released the barrier around the house and carried the baby to InuYasha.

"You have a daughter," she said, kneeling to lay the baby in his arms.

He was transfixed immediately by that intense gaze. The child seemed to be opening his soul and weighing it. Finally, her gaze dropped; InuYasha had the feeling that, somehow, he had passed her test. He found himself breathing again; he hadn't been aware he was holding his breath.

Now it was his turn to look. She had a fuzzy black head, much like Tsuchiya's, dog's ears, claws, eyes that would become golden in a few weeks; there was no doubt this was his child. He marveled over the delicately arched black brows framing her close-set eyes, the mouth that looked like a recurved bow, the graceful hands and feet on a strong, lean body. It was too soon to tell, but she had the makings of great beauty some day.

And he was in a fix; if Shippo was right, and he suspected he was, he was now going to have to come up with the mother of all apologies. If he didn't succeed in winning Kagome over, he might never see this lovely child again. Nervously, he screwed himself up, trying to think of something, anything, to say.

------------------------------------------------

Kagome was resting comfortably in bed when InuYasha appeared hesitantly in the doorway. The baby was snuggled against his shoulder, still looking quietly about while she sucked her fist. He looked down at the floor, abashed, and asked, "Do I get to come in?"

Kagome nodded and he sat on the bed beside her, looking like he expected to be kicked at any moment.

"Sh..she's beautiful," he whispered, unable to look her in the eye. "I ... uh ... I've really been an idiot. I should have known better. I don't know what I was smelling and ... and I ... I really screwed up. Can you ... uh... can you forgive me?" He waited, face averted, for her answer.

Kagome watched him as he held the baby like a lifeline, waiting for her judgment to save or ruin him. He wouldn't fight; justice or mercy, he placed it entirely in her hands; to no one else would he ever submit so completely.

She sighed and ran a gentle hand through his hair; he flinched at the caress, he didn't deserve it. Kagome looked back over the last few months of misery; in truth, he had been the most miserable one of them all.

"Do you truly not know what you were smelling?" she asked softly.

He shook his head.

"I've been thinking about it while I waited for you. Just what was that thing that was the same between Sango-chan and me? I can only think of one thing."

He finally looked at her, waiting to hear her answer.

She smiled at him, resigned and tolerant of his foolishness, then said, "Did it never once occur to you that you were smelling girl-baby?"

InuYasha froze, completely dazed by the utterly mundane explanation. Obviously, something that simple had never crossed his mind. He closed his eyes against the painful realization of what he had done for nothing. "No..."

"Can you think of anything else that's the same?"

He shook his head again, consumed in self-loathing. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..."

"Yes, it was. And you've hurt a lot of people in the meantime."

He looked at her again, wondering just how much chance he had of ever getting back into her good graces. To his surprise, she still looked remarkably tolerant.

"I do forgive you. You've punished yourself enough already. But, before I will take you back, you must apologize to Miroku-sama. You owe it to him."

InuYasha nodded again, then swallowed hard, ears drooping. It was fair, but that didn't make it easy. Miroku did not gladly suffer fools, and he realized that naming himself a fool was being charitable.

------------------------------------------------

Nevertheless, at first light of the next day, InuYasha could be found crouched down in the path before Miroku and Sango's house in a posture of total submission, arms outstretched in front of him and face nearly planted in the mud. When people were heard stirring in the house, he called in a loud, if shaky, voice, "This unworthy InuYasha comes to offer his most sincere and abject apologies to Miroku-sama and prays he will be so gracious as to accept them from this lowly dog."

This utterly formal recitation of deepest remorse and contrite apology had Miroku out the door in a flash, as well as half the village. InuYasha peeked through his bangs at Miroku's sandals and robe standing before him.

Through the murmuring of the crowd, InuYasha heard Miroku say, "I take it Kagome has delivered the baby?"

"Yes."

"And the baby is yours."

"Yes."

"So, what were you smelling?"

"Girl-baby," InuYasha replied faintly, bracing himself.

"Girl-baby," Miroku repeated.

"Girl-baby!?" Miroku exclaimed.

"Do you mean I caught all that crap because you were smelling **girl-baby**?!" Miroku bellowed.

InuYasha clamped his hands tight over his head and nodded tightly. "Yes."

Miroku wheeled around him and landed a very sharp kick on his butt. "You flaming idiot! I've met rocks that are smarter than you are!"

Miroku fetched him another kick on the butt, then yelled, "Sango! Have you been listening? All this jackass smelled was girl-baby!"

Miroku reached down and grabbed a handful of hair, hauling InuYasha's head up close enough to growl in his ear, "I really ought to exorcise your nose off. I could do it, you know."

InuYasha just knelt there and took it, trembling with the effort needed to keep himself under control.

Sango was in the doorway now, staring at InuYasha with burning eyes. She had only one question. "Is it true?"

"Yes." InuYasha nodded, resigned to enduring his humiliation. He had done it to himself, and if he ever wanted to go home, he needed to see this through.

Sango turned and bowed formally to Miroku, saying, "I was wrong to doubt you, Houshi-sama. Please accept my humble apologies."

She remained bowing until Miroku released InuYasha to bow back and say, "I accept."

Sango looked next at InuYasha. "Would Kagome-chan agree to see me?"

InuYasha snorted. "She's letting me in the door; I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

------------------------------------------------

The River Woman noted the arrival of the new child when the blue mote within the icon representing InuYasha and Kagome sailed free and joined the little thundercloud in a stately orbit around its parents. She looked more closely at the new piece, hoping to gain an insight into the nature of the young soul; now independent, it could be scrutinized from all sides. She called up a close magnification and found a tight ball-shaped monkeys-head knot formed of a blue cord that looked either tightly braided of many fine strands or faintly scaled. The ends of the cord were lost in the heart of the knot. Small bursts of fire sometimes flared in the heart of the knot to glow redly between the gaps in the cord. Something about the form struck the River Woman as oddly familiar, though she couldn't recall just what. She suspected the answer would be found in the ends of the cords that lay hidden within. Until she saw the knot untied, the child would remain a mystery.

1


	25. Chapter 25 Imoutonotsochan

Chapter 25 - Imouto-not-so-chan 

"Ganma, where's Mama?"

Tsuchiya wandered into the kitchen, trailing his monkey by the arm behind him, and looked at his grandmother dolefully. He had had an exciting afternoon with Uncle Sota, but now that evening was here, he had had enough. He was ready to go home.

Mama stopped her dinner preparations to pick him up and hold him cuddled against her shoulder.

"Your mama is very busy right now. She's having her baby. Your papa will come back when she's done to get you. Until then, you just have to wait with us."

Tsuchiya sighed unhappily in her arms. Grandma was a comfortable cuddle, but she didn't smell like his mama and the house didn't smell like home either.

"Want Mama!" he said firmly, smacking his monkey on Mama's chest a few times.

"I know, Tsu-chan. Your papa will be back as soon as he can. Then you can go meet your new little brother or sister."

"Do you really think he's ever coming back?" Grampa asked skeptically from where he was sitting at the kitchen table. "He's got the perfect opportunity to skip out now. And we'll be stuck with the boy."

"Psst!" Mama hissed at him. "Tsuchiya!"

Grampa grumbled under his breath and returned to his tea.

Tsuchiya had caught the undercurrents swirling around the kitchen, despite Grandma's reassurances. Something was going wrong with Papa and Mama. Then there was all that talk about brothers and sisters. He wasn't too sure what that was about either. He wanted his Mama.

--------------------

It was evening of the next day before InuYasha arrived, more than enough time for nerves to grow very frazzled in the Higurashi household. By the time noon had arrived with no word, Mama had started to worry that something had gone very wrong with the birth, Grampa was repeating his dire predictions of InuYasha's dereliction with greater conviction, and Tsuchiya had reduced everyone, including the cat, to a basket case.

InuYasha burst into the living room, caught Tsuchiya up in a swooping toss and hugged Mama tightly, spinning them both around, before he announced jubilantly, "It's a girl!"

It was such a transformation from the sullen InuYasha who had departed the previous afternoon that the Higurashis exchanged bewildered glances, wondering just what sort of happy-spell had been cast on him and when it was going to wear off.

"How's Kagome?" Mama asked.

"She and the baby are doing just fine," InuYasha beamed. "I'll bring them through in a few days, when Kagome is up to moving.

"You have the prettiest little sister," he told Tsuchiya. "Are you ready to come see her?"

"Want Mama," Tsuchiya demanded firmly.

"Mama wants to see you, too," InuYasha assured him. "Go get your monkey and your blanket, and we'll go see Mama."

Everyone pitched in on the mad scramble to find Tsuchiya's monkey and blanket, then they were off through the well.

Grampa looked at the wellhouse into which they had disappeared and commented, "I don't know what Kagome fed him, but she should do it more often."

--------------------

Kagome was resting in bed when InuYasha returned with Tsuchiya. The baby was sleeping bundled up in a basket beside her. Tsuchiya scrambled over the covers to give his mother a kiss and get a big hug, then she turned his attention to the basket.

"Come see," she said, "this is your new little sister, your imouto-chan.

Tsychiya peered into the basket to look at the tiny face sleeping quietly within. It was pretty boring, so he soon looked away. He wasn't sure what was so great about a sister, but Mama and Papa seemed very happy about it.

"Were you a good boy for Grandma?" Kagome asked as he climbed into her lap for a cuddle.

Tsuchiya bounced excitedly a couple of times, waving his arms, and said, "Unka Sota gots a big, uh, and, and it goes whoom and then it..."

"A big what?" Kagome asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see it," replied InuYasha.

"And... And then..." Tsuchiya climbed out of her lap and ran around the room with big swoops and whoops, then stopped to bounce on his toes a few times. Then he ran back to give Kagome another hug.

"Did you have dinner?" she asked.

"I hungry," he said, looking toward the kitchen.

--------------------

The baby woke up about ten o'clock that night, wet and hungry. Kagome was in the middle of changing her when Tsuchiya wandered in, attracted by the noise and activity. He wanted onto Kagome's lap too, and tried to muscle his way in while she was feeding the baby.

"Tsu-chan, you have to share," she cautioned him. "Imouto-chan needs to eat now. Here, you sit on this side, so she can have room. When she's done, we'll put her back to bed and you can have a turn."

When the baby was safely back in the basket, Kagome tried to play a patty cake game with Tsuchiya, but he wouldn't have it. He slapped at her hands and stalked off to his bed to huddle up with his monkey.

All the next day, Tsuchiya watched Kagome take care of his new sister with narrowed eyes and a grim, pouting mouth. He wrenched himself away from any of his mother's advances when she was free of caring for the baby to huddle up in a corner and sulk.

By the third day, Tsuchiya's ears were back in a sullen line and his golden eyes blazed as he watched his father cooing over her and his mother carrying her around for over half the day. Papa was his papa and Mama was his mama. What was so great about her? All she did was squeak and stink. But they always cuddled her first.

When Kagome brought him his breakfast, he picked up his bowl and threw it across the room in a great fit of temper, nailing his father square on the side of the head.

"Tsu-chan! You donot throw your food! Look what you did to Papa!" Kagome scolded.

"Nooo!" Tsuchiya cried, banging his fists down on the table.

"All right, back to bed with you, right now. You can get up when you're ready to be nice." Kagome picked him up, screaming, and put him on his bed with his monkey to cry it out. Then she returned to InuYasha to help him mop Tsuchiya's breakfast out of his hair.

"It had to be noodle soup, didn't it?" she fussed as she picked noodles and tofu out of his hair and off his clothes.

"Rice would have been worse," he replied, giving her a quick kiss as he went out the door. "I'll try to be back by noon."

--------------------

There was an unusual number of people in the village square this morning, mostly women in varying stages of pregnancy, as InuYasha crossed over to Kaede's house for his regular meeting, and they all seemed to be watching him furtively. He frowned as he tried to figure out what that was all about. He didn't remember doing anything all that remarkable in the last couple of days.

Miroku and Yamamaru were already there when InuYasha pushed his way through the door. InuYasha looked questioningly at Miroku.

"I thought I might add my expertise to the discussion of any problems," Miroku explained.

"And drum up some business of your own," InuYasha thought cynically. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it would be handy to be able to trade off sometimes when their babies were so tiny. And, Miroku did know his youkai.

Yamamaru, on the other hand, was rather given to flights of fancy. It was not the first time he had come in spooked by something perfectly ordinary. This time, it was a half-seen shape he saw flitting through the forest in the twilight yesterday evening, silent as a ghost. InuYasha assured him he would track it down tonight, when it was active again. Knowing Yamamaru, it was probably just an owl.

After Yamamaru left, InuYasha cocked an eye at Kaede and asked, "Do you have anything else to add to that wonderfully exciting assignment?"

Kaede shook her head, chuckling softly, then said, "No, that's it for today. If you'll excuse me now, I have a sick child to check on." She gathered her herbs and ducked through the door while Miroku and InuYasha finished their tea.

"So, do you have a name for the baby yet?" Miroku asked as he blew on his tea to cool it.

"Not yet," replied InuYasha. "About the last thing we were thinking about at the time was names." He had a wistful, sentimental look as he said, "I'd like to call her Kikyo."

Miroku choked on his tea. "You don't want to go there. Good grief, man, you're barely back in Kagome's good graces now. You dump that on her and she'll have your ears."

"Oh." He hadn't thought of that. "Um, so what would you suggest?"

"There are a lot of nice animal names, like Hato or Neko."

InuYasha snorted. "Oh, yeah, right. 'Kitty the Dog Demon', that really works."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Miroku conceded. "So stick with the flowers, there are lots of nice flowers, just don't use that flower."

"Yeah, we'll come up with something soon." InuYasha put away his cup and started for the door.

All through the meeting, there had been a steady background twitter of excited female voices coming from outside. As InuYasha lifted the door mat to leave the house, the crowd of pregnant women outside Kaede's fence surged forward and called, "Is it true, InuYasha-sama? Can you really tell what a baby's sex is before it's born?"

Miroku grabbed InuYasha's collar and yanked him back inside, then called out the door in his suavest voice, "Just a moment more of your patience, dear ladies. We'll be out very soon."

"What the Hell?!" InuYasha yelped, sneaking another quick peek through a gap in the mat.

Miroku snatched him back again with an alarmingly mercenary gleam in his eyes. "Let me handle this. We're sitting on a gold mine if we play this right."

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Do you have any idea how far some women will go to discover the sex of their unborn child? There's a huge array of charms out there for divining the answer. And all you have to do is take a sniff. So, let me set up a time when you'll be available, then we charge them a fee commensurate with a guaranteed answer, and..."

"Wait a minute. Charge them a fee?" InuYasha asked. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of this.

"Of course, charge them a fee," Miroku retorted. "Do you want to be accosted by every pregnant woman within ten miles every time you stick your nose outdoors? The fee will slow them down. I'll handle all the arrangements. You just have to show up."

"Miroku, I'm not even sure I want to have anything to do with this," InuYasha protested. He really didn't want to get tangled up in one of Miroku's "business" schemes.

"Oh, no, you don't," pressed Miroku. "You owe me."

"I owe you how?"

"Let's just say this will go a long ways toward making up for shadow of shame you put on me through the winter."

"Just how much are you planning on charging?" InuYasha asked suspiciously.

Miroku thought a moment, rattled off a couple of prices for existing charms, then produced a sum that InuYasha thought was exorbitant.

"That's a bit stiff!" InuYasha protested.

"Not for a guaranteed result," Miroku countered. "By the way, there's no way you could goof this up, is there?"

"Believe me, girl-baby is seared into my brain," InuYasha grumbled.

"And there's only one other answer, so we're set! I'll be cutting you in for one fourth of the take and..." Miroku continued.

"What? I'm doing all the work and you're.." InuYasha objected.

"I'm handling crowd control." Miroku replied.

InuYasha peered out the door again at the crowd of eager, pregnant women arrayed around the fence. Miroku had a point.

"Right. So how do we do this?"

"I expect it will work best if you inspect each woman individually. There's no chance of mixing up scents that way. We'll need a place for the women to wait their turn comfortably. Hmmm... About the only place in the village that works is the shrine. Let me go out first, then join me at the shrine at noon."

InuYasha let Miroku out the door to perform his woman-management magic. When Miroku had led them all, Pied-Piper style, up the steps of the shrine, InuYasha slipped out to do his morning border check.

--------------------

Taken one at a time, there were an awful lot of women lined up to get their "reading". InuYasha didn't even recognize half of them. Miroku wasn't kidding when he said there was a big demand for this service. By the end of the afternoon, InuYasha was also glad that Miroku was handling the people side of the business. There was no doubt he was earning his money. Many of the women were very unhappy with their answer, and some of them were not taking well to seeing the jubilant women who got the answer they wanted. Miroku's slick-talking skills were being hard-taxed to keep them all jollied along.

"Was that really worth it?" InuYasha asked, as Miroku divided up the proceeds after the last woman had left.

Miroku shoved a large handful of coins into InuYasha's hand. "I'm not complaining."

--------------------

InuYasha arrived home after his unusual day to a household in shambles. It was late in the afternoon, Tsuchiya was badly overdue for a nap, and so was Kagome from the look of her. Tsuchiya had gotten progressively worse all day, throwing a tantrum each time she had fed the baby. Kaede had tried a couple of calming spells on him when she visited, but he had shrugged them off. Shippo was now hiding in his "den" with the door barred shut, complaining sullenly that he wasn't about to come out until someone put a muzzle on Tsuchiya, who had apparently bitten his tail when he'd tried to pull him away from clawing at the baby.

Kagome told him all this as she sobbed on his shoulder, while Tsuchiya clung to her leg screaming, "MyMama!" at the top of his lungs.

InuYasha scooped Kagome up into his arms and, dangling her out of Tsuchiya's reach, he kissed her thoroughly and said provocatively, "My lady".

"**My Mama!**" Tsuchiya shrieked, kicking InuYasha's shins and clawing into his thigh.

"That was brilliant," Kagome said acidly as InuYasha hissed in pain. "Don't you think I've had enough of that for one day?"

"Let him be jealous of me for a while, OK? He can't hurt me." InuYasha answered.

"Then, can you at least take it outside?" she pleaded. "I don't think I can stand any more."

"Of course." He kissed her provocatively again, sending Tsuchiya spinning out of control. As Tsuchiya climbed his clothes to take the fight to his level, InuYasha slipped Kagome to her feet and went outside with his son for a some man-to-man time.

Half an hour later, InuYasha returned, a bit scratched up, but with Tsuchiya sound asleep over his shoulder.

"Where do you want him?" he asked, crouching down beside her as she fed the baby.

"Just put him to bed," Kagome sighed. "Let's hope he has a good nap before dinner."

InuYasha returned from settling Tsuchiya in his bed and sat down beside Kagome as she burped the baby and checked her diaper. When Kagome mentioned starting dinner, he took the baby into his arms and softly murmured, "How's Papa's little girl?" while she held his finger in her tiny hands and pulled it into her mouth.

Kagome watched the two of them while she laid out the dinner ingredients. Only three days old, and the baby already had him completely wound around her little finger. Who ever would have thought he would be such a sucker for baby girls? But there he was, completely besotted by the little bundle in his arms.

"Do you have any notions of what you want to name her?" she asked as she started cutting the vegetables.

InuYasha had been giving her name a considerable amount of thought. After his discussion with Miroku, he had been thinking of all the flowers he knew, rejecting some as too showy and others as too plain. He wanted something that reflected the delicate grace of her face and hands, without being too blatant. On the way up the hill, he had paused beside the cherry tree that grew at the top of the stairs and watched the fluttering of the petals in the gentle breeze.

"I like Sakura," he said quietly, remembering the tree.

Kagome blinked. "You mean, like my great aunt?"

Oh, my. He'd forgotten about Great Aunt Sakura. He had only seen the old woman for a moment, but it had been one of the more embarrassing moments of his life.

"Still, it certainly wouldn't hurt to jolly the old girl along," Kagome continued on further reflection. "I wonder what she'd think?"

"It's our daughter," InuYasha said. "What Great Aunt Sakura thinks has nothing to do with it."

There was a stubborn set to his jaw that said he had his mind made up. Kagome, herself, had no real objection to the name. Maybe this Sakura would reflect the image of gently scented cherry blossoms on graceful branches better than her namesake.

--------------------

When Sakura was a week old, InuYasha took them all to visit the Higurashi side of the family. Sakura was passed around the family for inspection as Kagome and InuYasha tried to get Tsuchiya jollied into a better frame of mind.

"What's the matter?" Mama asked, as Sakura made her way to Grampa and Sota.

"He's jealous," Kagome explained as Tsuchiya tracked his sister's progress with his ears back.

"Oh,my. It's normal enough," Mama sighed. She crouched down to Tsuchiya's level and said, "Tsu-chan, I made some sweet buns up for you special, since I knew you were coming. Do you want to come with me and have one?"

She drew him off to the kitchen with her for a while.

Everyone put in a special effort to pay some attention to Tsuchiya during the visit, but everywhere he turned, there was Sakura, his imouto. Imouto nursing at Mama's breast, Imouto sleeping on Mama's shoulder. He never noticed the times Mama hugged him; he was too busy seeing Papa holding Imouto. When Papa bounced him and swung him around, he saw Imouto getting tickled by Uncle Sota. When Uncle Sota tickled him and rolled him on the matt, he saw Grandma cooing over Imouto's golden eyes. Everywhere, all the time, there was Imouto. She had taken everything, everyone, that was his, and he hated it.

1


	26. Chapter 26 An Anchor Imperiled

Chapter 26 - An Anchor Imperiled 

The River Woman watched the chaos swirling around her anchor with dismay. The little thundercloud that was Tsuchiya had puffed itself into a deep virulent purple and was shooting thunderbolts about it indiscriminately, striking telling blows on the construct of his parents. The energies within their construct stirred, flaring vivid bursts of dark and bright light and seething in an accelerating stew of bubbling opalescence. The deeply locked roots of the construct loosened as the turmoil within it caused its shape to warp and ripple.

She summoned the Gatekeeper, he who had earlier recognized the soul quickening Tsuchiya, and sought his insights into what could appease Tsuchiya's wrath.

The Gatekeeper stood under the plum tree and watched the frantic outbursts wordlessly. Finally he chuckled softly and remarked, "_I told you they were going to be busy._"

"_Busy!_" The River Woman didn't find his amusement amusing. "_Look at that!_" she snapped, "_The roots are shifting; it's breaking loose! I'll lose the anchor if I can't get a handle on this._"

"_No, no, the boy is weakening. He won't hold out much longer. Do you see the transparency in the cloud?_"

Indeed, the cloud was acquiring regions where one could see through the purple to the current beyond.

The River Woman's nerves were stretched too thin to view this as an improvement. "_Does that mean I'm losing him too?_"

The Gatekeeper circled a finger over the cloud and called up an image that showed the boy animating it. Tsuchiya was currently sulking in a corner of the house with his monkey, dark circles prominent under his glazed eyes.

"_No, I just think we have a very tired little boy. He'll have exhausted his passion soon, then things will stabilize._"

But will it be in time? The River Woman fretted as she watched her anchor undulate from the influence of the currents.

"_I knew that second child was coming too soon_," she thought vehemently. "_Did Muchitsujo-rei get her slipped in past me?_"

No, she decided, it wasn't Muchitsujo-rei. He was much too clumsy a player to slide in something like this. He had never mastered the art of laying deferred-action pieces; everything he did took effect right then and with a clear intent behind it. She watched the blue knot as it continued its serene orbit about the anchor. There was still something cryptic about this piece. She knew something lurked, dormant, within the bends of the knot, but she had thus far been unable to fathom its nature. There was still some other hidden player casting his hand with his own agenda.

She shook herself free of her ruminations and got back to business. There were a few support pieces within range of her anchor she could employ. She twitched a couple of them in the hope they might shore up her faltering anchor, then she turned her attention to keeping Muchitsujo-rei's anchor busy.

--------------------

Sango had not seen Kagome in the village for many days, so she rounded up her girls and Kirara and went up the hill herself for a visit.

A very haggard Kagome answered her knock and greeted her vaguely. Sango pushed her way through the door and stood looking at the collapsing household around her. A pile of stinky, dirty laundry loomed in one corner, a precarious stack of dirty dishes wobbled near the basin and bed clothes were scattered everywhere.

"Good grief, Kagome-chan, what on Earth has been going on up here?" she cried.

"Umm, I, uh, I was up four times last night. I'm kind of behind." Kagome blinked at her through dark-rimmed eyes and started to fumble at clearing the table.

"Kind of! I'll say!" Sango exclaimed. "All right girl, let's get this fixed up."

Sango briskly set down her baby bundle, put Hato down on the table where she could see, then rounded up the rest of the children.

"Listen up," she ordered, "You are all going outside now. It's a gorgeous day and I don't want to see you again until I say you can come in. And that goes double for you," she added, pointing at Tsuchiya. "Kirara, would you please make sure they stay out of trouble?"

Once she had the children shooed outdoors, she tied back her sleeves, put a scarf on over her hair, then grabbed a couple of buckets to fetch water.

"Why don't you start with building up the fire?" she directed Kagome on her way out the door.

Kagome could handle that. She laid in the wood she had on hand and blew on the coals until she had some merry flames crackling. Then she went outside and collected another armful of wood from the wood pile and set it beside the hearth for later.

In the meantime, Sango had brought back several buckets full of water. She had the kettle warming for dishwater and loaded a large pot to warm for the laundry later. That done, she started soaking the laundry in the remaining water to loosen the crusty bits.

The kettle was now hot, so dishes commenced. Sango washed and Kagome dried and put away. Kagome could feel her hopeless lethargy lifting as the house cleared out and cleaned up.

Tsuchiya tried a couple of times to infiltrate the house, only to be stopped short by a fierce no-nonsense glare from Sango. She would point back at the door and say only "Out." Wide-eyed, he obeyed.

"How do you do that, Sango-chan?" Kagome asked.

"Do what?"

"He just did what you said, no fuss."

"I gave him 'the look'."

"The look?"

"You know, the one that says 'Don't mess with Mom'." Sango gave her 'the look'.

Kagome could feel her insides shriveling under the impact of that glare. It had been a while since she had been on the receiving end of 'the look'.

"Ok, I get it."

"Right, so let's see yours."

Kagome mustered up a stern look.

Sango snorted. "Oh, come on. He has to believe you're gonna rip his guts out if he doesn't straighten up rightnow. I know you've got it in you; I've seen you fry InuYasha with a look."

"Isn't that a bit fierce? He's only a little guy."

"Kagome-chan, if you get 'the look' down, you won't have to do anything."

Kagome considered it as they finished the dishes and moved on to the laundry. Sango's girls were very well-behaved, even if they were spirited. She must be on to something.

--------------------

Outside, Hisui, Shinzu and Tsuchiya played in the meadow. The girls picked flowers and tried to make garlands while Tsuchiya discovered the joys of chasing grasshoppers.

At first, it was fun just to stomp through the grass and watch them hop in all directions. Then he decided to catch one and have a closer look. That was harder than he thought. He crept close a number of times only to have the insect leap away just as he made the snatch. He chased one particularly plump hopper all the way to the edge of the meadow, where Kirara intercepted him.

"Kitty," Tsuchiya said, reaching out to pet her. Unlike Buyo, this kitty didn't bolt from his reaching hand. He had wanted to touch a cat for ages. They looked so soft. And she was, deliriously soft. He stroked along her back and she arched happily, purring. He petted her for a while longer, then got curious about where the purr was coming from. Kirara put up with his poking for a while, then transformed to her full size when he tried to pry her mouth open for a look. Suddenly, he was staring up into the impressively fanged, growling mouth of a very big cat.

"Aaagh!" He fell over backward onto his bottom and stared up, wide-eyed.

"Nice kitty?" He wasn't sure.

Kirara gave him a stern look, then relaxed back to her small size and walked off, tails lashing, to visit Hisui and Shinzu.

Tsuchiya followed at a safe distance.

Hisui picked Kirara up and petted her, rubbing her under the chin. Kirara resumed purring.

"Kitty, he, he gotreal big!" Tsuchiya warned.

"She," Hisui corrected. "Did you make her mad?"

"I, uh..." Tsuchiya started, then stopped. "What's that noise? She growl?"

"No, she's purring."

"What's purring?"

"It's a noise she makes when she likes something," Hisui replied, rubbing the ecstatic Kirara behind the ears.

"But, but she..." He waved his hands showing her getting big.

"Well, what did you do?" insisted Hisui. "Did you poke her?"

"I try to see purr." Tsuchiya admitted.

Hisui rolled her eyes. "You can't see the purr. It's way down inside. Here, put your ear on her side."

Tsuchiya wasn't sure that sounded like a good idea.

"Don't worry," Shinzu chimed in. "She just gets big to make you stop bugging her. She doesn't do anything."

Tsuchiya approached carefully and put his head near Kirara's chest. The rumbling grew loud and the vibrations tickled his ear.

"Ohhh."

He tentatively petted her again. The rumbling got louder.

"There, see? If you're nice, she's nice."

Sango's head poked out of the door of the house to announce, "OK, you lot, you can come in for lunch now."

--------------------

In Uesugi Kenshin's latest raid, he had destroyed the fields of three villages and had burned a small outpost to the ground before the Takeda soldiers had managed to chase him back across the border.

Takeda Shingen completed his survey of the damage, his annoyance reaching a peak. He was getting very tired of that cocky upstart's shenanigans.

"Uesugi Kenshin. Who does he think he's fooling? His only tie to the Uesugi clan was providing safe harbor for their last feeble remnants. But he puts on their name and acts the daimyo nonetheless.

"Hmph. He's gone too far this time."

Shingen returned to his encampment and summoned his officers. They discussed Kenshin in detail, analyzing his actions and aspirations, his alliances and holdings. The discussion included the fact that Kenshin had had several run-ins with the Hojo clan to the east. The Hojo and the Takeda had had their own clashes in the past, but that did not rule out soliciting their aid when circumstances warranted it. At the end, the question Shingen threw out for discussion was, "Shall we find out how badly old Hojo Ujiyasu wants back Musashi-Matsuyama castle?"

--------------------

Hojo Ujiyasu was very receptive to the proposal that he and Takeda Shingen join forces to take Musashi-Matsuyama. He sent across his lands for his most effective samurai to undertake the siege, including Shimomura Sumio.

Shimomura Sumio was no fool. He might be the undisputed lord of his little corner of the Hojo lands, but he did not have the resources to make a break from his sponsor. He and an elite force of soldiers answered the Hojo summons.

--------------------

Mama had been shooting that terrifying look at Tsuchiya every time he woke her up at night lately, so tonight he chose Papa.

"Papa awake?" he asked, crouching down and peeling one of InuYasha's eyelids open.

It was an appalling way to wake up in the middle of the night. InuYasha managed to escape without a gouged eyeball, despite the fact he had flinched mightily at the assault.

"Tsuchiya, it's the middle of the night!" he groaned. "Why are you up?"

"Imouto was up," Tsuchiya observed.

"Imouto-chan gets very hungry. She's so little she can't wait 'til morning. She wakes up, she eats, she goes back to sleep. She's sleeping right now."

"Eat?" Tsuchiya's ears pricked and he looked hopefully toward the kitchen.

"You're hungry?" InuYasha asked.

"Yeah."

"OK, I'll get you a snack."

That was a mistake. To his great dismay, InuYasha discovered that feeding Tsuchiya was like putting a fresh battery in the Energizer Bunny. There was now no hope of the boy going back to sleep.

Kagome had no sympathy.

"You fed him, you deal with him," she grumbled from her sanctuary under the covers.

"Hey! I changed Sakura before you fed her," InuYasha protested.

"So? There's a difference between helpful and dumb."

"The next call's yours," he asserted.

"Yeah, fine," she mumbled, already half-asleep.

--------------------

Even Tsuchiya could not maintain a state of sustained hysteria indefinitely. After three weeks, he had worn out and had to come to grips with the new facts of his life. A period of sullen brooding followed his epic tantrum, then he started to recover his normal ebullience, punctuated by lapses from grace a few times a week wherein he made it clear he had not forgotten his affront.

He coped better when he had long uninterrupted spells with his mother. Since he was more willing to share his father, InuYasha found himself in charge of Sakura quite often; they had a regular date for a couple of hours every morning.

InuYasha took her on excursions. She was generally wide awake during this time, and they inspected flowers, watched birds and dragonflies, and visited around in the village. By the time they got back, Sakura would be ready for lunch and a nap, Tsuchiya had had his dose of Mommy-time and InuYasha could safely leave them alone for a few hours.

The long winter had delayed planting, so the usual busy time of putting in the crops had been compressed into a frenzied burst of activity in mid-Spring. Fortunately, the weather held, and, at last, the village could relax into the normal quiet months of tending the growing plants as the early summer rainy season settled over the region.

Weeding, thinning and training plants on trellises ruled the day. Boys chased birds and rabbits from the fields and tended the livestock. Girls gathered greens, spun thread, and minded the poultry and their younger siblings. Optimism for the new year's prospects grew.

InuYasha and Kagome welcomed the relative calm of the growing season. The late planting crisis had impelled InuYasha to put his muscle into helping prepare the fields and he had not been home much lately to help field Tsuchiya, who was still suffered from jealousy of his imouto.

Today had been quiet so far. The baby was forgotten as she slept through her afternoon nap. Kagome and Tsuchiya were playing a counting game and Kagome was also quietly drilling him on the names of colors and parts of the body. It gave Tsuchiya a chance to show off for her, which he loved.

InuYasha lazed back on the porch, one ear tilted toward the house and the baby and wished more days were like this. Why couldn't Tsuchiya feel their love when his sister was present? All InuYasha could do was require the boy not to hurt her; he couldn't force him to accept her. What could they do to help him see they still valued him?

Thunderclouds built up over the valley and drifted toward the hills. The air grew heavy and sultry as the sun vanished behind the clouds. People started watching the sky, timing their dash to shelter as the storm approached.

The first crack of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating a small flying figure which quickly dropped to a lower altitude to avoid the thunderhead, then turned to line up for a landing in InuYasha's meadow. Startled cries rose from the villagers as they watched the figure's progress.

InuYasha sat up quickly and stared, tensing, as he recognized his brother's two-headed dragon-steed, then Sesshomaru himself with a lanky half-grown girl riding behind him. Damn! He hadn't seen Sesshomaru in years, which, frankly, was fine with him. What the Hell had brought Sesshomaru here after all this time?

Kagome stood, holding Tsuchiya, as the dragon-steed landed and Jaken, Sesshomaru's toady little retainer, popped out from between Sesshomaru and the girl to haughtily announce, "Sesshomaru-sama greets his brother and will discuss with him a concern about the girl Rin."

Kagome looked startled while InuYasha rolled his eyes at the announcement. Sesshomaru could sure be a pompous ass. So, he was being favored with Sesshomaru's presence so they could talk about Rin? What the Hell was that about?

He looked at the girl who was still sitting on the dragon as Sesshomaru dismounted. He hadn't seen her in years. She was now all arms and legs, with big dark eyes and prominent cheek bones, still too skinny to be pretty, though the promise was there. She also looked sulky and seriously put out to be the topic of discussion.

Sesshomaru's elegant face was as impassive as ever, but his mere presence was telling. Although he would never admit it, Rin was by far his most valued possession and something about her had him seriously worried; worried enough to concede, however tacitly, that the situation was beyond him.

InuYasha swallowed hard, trying to control the impulse to poke. It wasn't often he got his brother at a disadvantage. Still, perhaps there was something seriously wrong with Rin, even though she looked healthy enough.

Thunder rumbled again and a few drops of rain splattered around them with a gust of wind. Kagome looked at the rain-laden clouds and suggested, "Let's go inside to catch up, shall we? It's been years."

Both Sesshomaru and Rin looked at her for the first time, Sesshomaru's face tightening with disapproval and Rin's lighting up with pleasure at the sight of Tsuchiya in her arms. Rin slid off the dragon and ran to Kagome for a closer look while Sesshomaru walked haughtily to the door, followed by Jaken.

" Sesshomaru-sama never told me you had a baby," Rin gushed as she walked beside Kagome. "He's so cute! How old is he?"

"He's almost two," replied Kagome.

"Hi, I'm Rin," Rin said, smiling eagerly at Tsuchiya.

"Rin," Tsuchiya repeated, half-shy but still interested.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Tsuchiya," he replied, bolder now.

"Tsuchiya?" Sesshomaru looked askance at his brother, eyebrows raised.

InuYasha flushed, wincing. "It just kind of happened. Don't ask."

InuYasha ushered Sesshomaru to a cushion beside the hearth as Kagome asked Rin if she would like to help with some food. Kagome and Rin disappeared into the storeroom to find ingredients.

Sesshomaru took a moment to inspect his surroundings and study his younger brother with critical eyes. InuYasha had filled out and matured significantly. He had lost the appearance of a stripling boy; broad shoulders and well muscled arms now rippled under his shirt and a soft mustache and hints of a beard ringed his mouth. Although not sporting anything of the magnificence of Sesshomaru's trappings, he was also clean and well-kept, his hair brushed and trimmed. The little house wasn't a palace, but InuYasha was comfortable enough. From a side-room, Sesshomaru caught the scent of another child, a girl-baby. He looked at his brother sharply again.

Tsuchiya came out of the storeroom and climbed into his father's lap. From there, he studied Sesshomaru, his nose twitching a few times. He couldn't figure it out. His eyes and ears said the being in front of him was an elegant, white-haired young man, but his nose screamed "DOG!" He wasn't sure how that worked. He looked at his father; Papa smelled sort of like dog, but then, he had dog ears. And he smelled like a human too. But the man in front of him had no human scent at all.

"Are you a dog?" he asked.

"I am," Sesshomaru acknowledged.

"Are you Rin's dog?"

Inuyasha choked; he hadn't seen that one coming.

Incredibly, Sesshomaru did not erupt, though his eyes flared momentarily.

"No, Rin is my girl," he declared.

Tsuchiya frowned, thinking, then decided it could work both ways.

The concept was a revelation for InuYasha. It explained a lot. It also opened up many problems; he wondered if Rin realized she was Sesshomaru's pet.

Tsuchiya squirmed and got out of InuYasha's lap, then headed for the door. It was boring in the house, everyone was just sitting.

"Where are you going?" InuYasha demanded.

"Wanna play with Shippo," Tsuchiya replied.

InuYasha nodded his permission.

The baby started fussing in the bedroom. InuYasha looked toward the storeroom. Where had Kagome and Rin vanished to? He gave up after a moment and collected her himself.

Sesshomaru watched him coo to the baby, comforting her, then said, "You're in too deep."

"What?"

"They're mortal. I can smell the decay, they age even as they grow. The woman, the children, in just a few short years they'll be gone, like butterflies. You can't hold them so close."

InuYasha twitched a dismissive ear. "How can I not? They're my family."

"Then you should have taken a youkai for a mate."

InuYasha shook his head. "What youkai looks twice at a hanyou? Kagome is the only one who has ever taken me for what I am, no more, no less."

"And yet, she will be gone before many years pass."

"You think I don't know that?" InuYasha cried. "I'll take what years I can get."

"Then what?" Sesshomaru demanded, his golden eyes drilling into InuYasha's. "I never got to ask Father what happens when the butterfly dies. He died first. But you're just like him, giving your whole heart to some sweet, pretty, little wisp of a mortal. I wonder; will you survive it any better than he?"

InuYasha stared back and whispered, "Does it matter? In those years, however short, I will have had a lifetime of joy."

"You're a fool. You can't hope to break free of the coming heartbreak. You should have left while you had the chance."

InuYasha just flicked his ears, dismissing the subject. Sesshomaru would never understand how bleak his life was before Kagome. "Never mind. I've said the vows and accepted the seals. What's done is done and I'll take my fate when it comes."

"What?! You married her?" Sesshomaru looked thunderstruck.

"Of course. What did you think, that I'd leave her dangling?" InuYasha retorted. "She's giving her life to me."

"The life of a butterfly," Sesshomaru scoffed.

"It's all the life she has. And, as you said, a few short years for me." InuYasha cocked an ironic eyebrow at his brother, while his insides writhed at the reminder of just how short his time would be with Kagome.

"Absolute madness. Even Father never went that far."

"He d..d..doesn't really care about me! He's so meean!" That wail came from the storeroom, followed by a gust of passionate sobbing as Kagome murmured softly to Rin.

Sesshomaru stared at the door of the storeroom, his ears wilting, as InuYasha watched, bemused. Sesshomaru was actually ... crumpling?

Sesshomaru caught InuYasha's raised eyebrows; his expression grew stoney.

"Sni...ifff! He makes me so mad! One of these days I'm just going to leave. What does he know anyway? I'm tired of wandering from nowhere to nowhere. There's never anyone around, just dumb old Jaken to talk to." Rin had gone from heartbroken to petulant in a the space of a heartbeat.

"Have you ever asked him if you could visit someone?" Kagome asked, trying to inject some reason into the scene. "How did you come to be here today?"

"How should I know?" Now she was righteously exasperated.

Kagome and Rin came to the doorway, Kagome with some snacks arranged on a tray with tea supplies. Kagome came through the door, but Rin pulled a sour face when she saw Sesshomaru watching and flounced back into the storeroom with a sniff. "I am not talking to him."

Jaken jumped to his feet in outrage and shouted after her, "You are an ungrateful brat! Sesshomaru-sama has watched over you for years out of the kindness of his heart. No one would blame him if he left you behind after this! You come out and apologize!"

"Shut up Jaken! Who asked you?" Rin snarled from the storeroom.

" Sesshomaru-sama, why do you let her say these things? She mocks your honor." Jaken protested.

"Jaken." Icy warning ran through Sesshomaru's voice.

It was a good question though. InuYasha had never known anyone to speak like that to Sesshomaru and live. He looked at the tic developing in Sesshomaru's left eye and asked, "Does she do that often?"

The glare he got in return was answer enough.

"Rin has been with you for seven years now, has she not?" Kagome remarked as she took the baby from InuYasha's arms. "That would make her about twelve."

"And what would that have to do with anything?" Sesshomaru asked.

"She's starting puberty, becoming a woman. Girls get very volatile and unreasonable during puberty."

"Ah." Sesshomaru relaxed as an explanation for Rin's behavior emerged. "And how long does this puberty last?"

"Oh, anywhere from two to five years," Kagome answered.

Sesshomaru froze, his stoney expression only betrayed by the accelerating tic in his eye.

"Sucks to be you," InuYasha smirked.

The next thing he knew, he was crashing into the wall across the room, his head throbbing from the force of Sesshomaru's blow. He had never even seen Sesshomaru's fist.

"Girls need to be among other women during this time," Kagome said quietly. "They have questions only another woman can answer. She is welcome to stay with us if you wish."

"Ahh, Kagome," InuYasha said as he picked himself up off the floor, "don't you think things are exciting enough around here already?" The mere thought of adding a moody girl to the fun of handling his desperately jealous son was chilling his blood.

Kagome gave him a quelling glare as Sesshomaru enjoyed his discomfiture with sardonic amusement.

"She may stay for three days this time. Then I want her back." Sesshomaru rose, nodded his farewell, then headed for the door, preceded by Jaken. He paused at the soft, excited, "Oh!" coming from the storeroom.

Rin bounded out of the storeroom and hugged him fiercely, crying, "Thank you Sesshomaru-sama. I promise to be ready when you return." She went out with him to wave goodbye.

"What an idiot," InuYasha said, watching him take his leave.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.

"You should have heard him earlier, carrying on about how I was in too deep. That dumb-ass is in as deep as I am and doesn't even know it."

--------------------

Musashi-Matsuyama castle fell in due time to the Hojo-Takeda alliance. The Hojo resumed control of the castle, then disbanded portions of the army summoned for the siege.

Shimomura Sumio chose to return to his castle via a tour of western Musashi. The area had been wavering and the villages needed to be reminded who their masters were. As he returned, he passed through several villages that had strange tales of a small region of land to the north that no longer submitted to the Hojo yoke. Some said this land was protected by a kami with a powerful magical sword who kept out all evil. Others said it was enslaved by a beast-man who used his sword to exact tribute. He either battled youkai or commanded youkai. The stories also mentioned a powerful miko; sometimes she was allied to the being, sometimes she fought him, she might have been his slave, or perhaps, he was hers.

Sumio did not have much use for the supernatural; magic had seldom affected any of his actions. He did note however that this land to the north was remiss in their taxes.

1


	27. Chapter 27 A Taxing Situation

Chapter 27 - A Taxing Situation 

"I don't know, Saito-san, that child gives me the shivers." Rokuro watched InuYasha stroll down the path toward the fish ponds holding Sakura. "There's something unnatural about the way she seems to see right through you."

"Do you think so?" Saito remarked. "I'll warrant she looks close enough at aught that interests her, but I've seen no harm in it. Perhaps it's just that her eyes are so bright that she seems so uncanny."

"Nay, have you watched her?" Rokuro insisted with a grumble. "She looks and she decides. I don't appreciate being judged by a babe who can't even speak yet. What would she know of the ways of the world?" He shifted uneasily, then shot a sharp glance at the baby before looking away.

Saito chucked genially. "Oh, I expect you're putting more purpose into her looking than is really there. She's always acted like a normal baby to me."

They fell silent as InuYasha drew closer with the girl who was solemnly watching a butterfly settle on a chrysanthemum.

"Bah!" Sakura exclaimed, hitching her claws into InuYasha's shoulder and pulling up for a closer look at the butterfly as it sipped nectar, fanning its wings. InuYasha stopped to let her watch. Her golden eyes gazed intently, drinking in the scene with an clarity of purpose unusual in so young a child.

The butterfly flew away and InuYasha resumed his stroll, finally approaching Saito and Rokuro as they stood watching.

"Good morning, Saito-san, Rokuro-san. We thought we'd come watch the fish today." InuYasha smiled fondly at Sakura as she stared intently at a dragonfly hovering over the closest fish pond. She bounced in his arms, pointing at the dragonfly as it darted and hovered over the water. "Yes, I see. It's a dragonfly."

Sakura grinned her delight, then turned to regard the people. Her vivid, golden eyes locked in on them, hawk-bright and piercing. Once again, Rokuro got the strange impression that she was riffling through the layers of his soul, seeing all the way down to the deepest core of his being.

She cocked her head quizzically, apparently pondering what she was seeing, judging it, then she looked at Saito. A moment later, she grinned and reached out to him. Saito smiled and tickled her under the chin, making her giggle.

Rokuro scowled, muttering, "Just like that, eh? Small wonder you've not seen it.

"I'd best be on my way. I've work to do," he announced, taking his leave with a last disgruntled look at Sakura.

"What's up with him?" InuYasha asked, watching him go with narrowed eyes.

"An uneasy conscience, I expect," Saito replied. "He thinks Sakura-chan is judging him."

InuYasha recalled that moment just after Sakura was born when he had faced her scrutiny, and wondered. Perhaps he would keep a closer eye on Rokuro.

"Ah, this little one, she looks hard and she thinks deep, but I see no harm in her," Saito remarked, pronouncing his own judgment on Sakura. "The world could use a few more like her."

---------------------------

Tax collection was most profitable just after harvest, as Shimomura Sumio well knew. Therefore, he had kept his peace through the summer and waited until the end of September to dispatch Yoshimi to that land north and west of him that had dropped from the Hojo control some years ago. In the meantime, however, he had searched the tax records for several years back. The village in the little valley had never provided much income, so the fact that they had not paid recently had gone unnoticed by the Hojo money counters. But that wasn't the point, was it? The point was control; people needed to acknowledge their masters. Otherwise, the domain fell apart.

Minori was feeding chickens in her yard when Yoshimi and his armed retinue rode into the village. She recognized him with horror and quickly dropped her head so her sunhat would hide her face then melted into the shadows of the chicken coop, her heart pounding. How had Sumio found her? She waited until the men had ridden through, then bolted into the alleys to wind her way to Miroku-sama. He knew how dangerous Sumio was; he would listen when she gave her warning. At Miroku's house, she found Sango instead. Sango met her with hard eyes and a tightened jaw, jealous of any woman who came seeking her man, especially one as lovely as Minori.

Minori took a deep breath and bowed very low, beseeching Sango's indulgence.

"Please, Sango-san, you must listen! Sumio's tax collector, Yoshimi, has just ridden into town. I don't know what Sumio knows, but we cannot let word of our presence here make its way back to him. Sumio would like nothing more than to get you or me back into his power. You remember what happens then. I must hide, Yoshimi knows me, but you can spread the word."

With that, Minori melted back into the alleyways and took herself back to the little hut on the edge of the village that she shared with old Minoru, resolving not to leave its confines until Yoshimi and his men were gone.

Sango considered Minori's warning. Minori had looked truly rattled. She remembered all too well what happened to those who fell into Sumio's power. Yoshimi wouldn't recognize her, but she wasn't so sure about the men in his retinue. If any of them had been in the hunting party that had followed them, they would know her; she had made a very splashy escape.

In the end, she sent her neighbor to pass the news to Miroku, just the fact that these men were Sumio's. He could figure out the rest of it from there.

Miroku was already sitting with the council of elders when the neighbor found him. He excused himself briefly to take the message, then softly passed back some instructions. A couple of moments later, he was back with the council, thinking fast. The way he saw it, the best approach was soft, reasonable words and misdirection. The challenge was keeping the remainder of the council in line.

The remaining council members watched as he reseated himself and assumed a open, ingenuous expression. For those that knew him, it was a clear warning that he had some scheme in the works. They watched him sharply from the corners of their eyes as he said quietly to Kaede, "Kaede-sama, may I address these men's concerns?"

Kaede realized he has just received some crucial piece of information that he could not share openly and ceded control of the meeting to him, though she continued to watch sharply under half-closed eyes.

" Yoshimi-sama is of course aware that the last winter pushed well into the normal planting season." Miroku explained. "Following that, our weather remained cool and the rice grew poorly. I fear we grew scarcely more than seed for next year. We did better in our millet returns, so if your masters would be willing to accept payment in millet, I'm sure..."

Yoshimi exploded in outrage. "Everywhere it is the same miserable tale! We had a bad winter and a poor growing season," he scoffed. "We have no rice; please take our millet. But when I look, I find the missing rice. And I will look."

Miroku nodded placidly. "Of course you will look. We expected no less. But, we beseech you, do not take our seed rice. If you take that, then there will be nothing to grow for next year's taxes."

The eyes of the council members darted from one to another as they thought frantically. What was Miroku up to? The rice crop had been reasonably good this year and they had lost the habit of hiding the crop. There had been too many years since a tax collector had come through. There was no way they could hide it in time. Even InuYasha couldn't move that fast, and InuYasha was not in the village right now.

Miroku then took the discussion into how the tax collector determines what is owed in a year. He professed a great interest in how the calculations were done and asked all sorts of niggling questions about how one factored in village size, losses due to natural disasters, figuring out what could remain for seed and ceremonial duties. Yoshimi, who had always operated under the "leave some seed and take everything else" philosophy, was soon floundering in minutiae he had never even known existed. Miroku led him down several contingency branches, confused him with circular questioning, asked about exchange rates for other commodities and was delving into the subtleties of what the daimyo owed the villages in return for their taxes when Yoshimi finally exploded and called a sudden halt.

"Enough of this foolishness! No more talking! What the daimyo do with your taxes is not your affair. I want to see your stores. Now!"

"As Yoshimi-sama wishes. Shall we go?" Miroku rose, bowed and prepared to lead the tax collector to the granary.

Miroku sought Wataru's eye as they met at the door to the granary. Wataru's eyes flickered as he bowed to Yoshimi and escorted him in, followed by the council.

The great urns of the granary were as all had remembered them. Yoshimi walked up and down the aisle, banging them and listening to how they rang.

He looked hard anger at Miroku, then commented, "They seem full enough. I'm sure you can pay and provide a penalty for your lies as well."

"Let's measure out the tax, then, shall we?" Miroku answered. Wataru brought over a sack and opened an urn. As Miroku started to scoop out its contents for inspection, Yoshimi snarled, "Not that one. It's millet."

"So it is," Miroku agreed, putting back the scoop of grain and replacing the lid. "Shall we try the one next to it?"

It was also millet. And the next one. And the next one. As they reached the end of the line, one of the smaller urns finally revealed rice.

"Hah! There it is! Pour it in there," Yoshimi ordered, pointing to the bag.

"Miroku turned to Wataru and asked, "Aren't the smaller urns the seed grain?"

"Aye, Houshi-sama, they are."

"Well, we should try to find another urn. What about that one back there?" Miroku pointed to another urn in the next tier back. It, too, was filled with millet.

Miroku turned to Yoshimi and asked, "Are you sure you won't accept payment in millet? We really did do well in millet this year."

Yoshimi snarled, "You are supposed to be planting rice; you know that well. These fields belong to the daimyo and he requires rice."

Miroku sighed regretfully and said, "Yes, we know. And we did plant rice. It never headed well, then succumbed to a rust shortly before harvest. If you must take our seed rice, though, you can be sure there will be nothing for next year's taxes. Would your masters be happy to find that what you take this year ensures there will be a great many years before we can pay again?"

Yoshimi stomped, fuming, out of the granary, and entered an house at random. The startled housewife looked up from her dinner preparations as he off the lid of the rice pot. Millet. In an even greater fury, he flung the lid across the room and left, then gathered his men and swung into the saddle.

Miroku bowed beside him and said, "Please convey our humble apologies to the daimyo. We shall undoubtedly do better next year."

Yoshimi left with an inarticulate growl.

As the tax collector's retinue disappeared down the road, Kaede asked, "What was that all about?"

Miroku replied, "That tax collector answers to Shimomura Sumio, the ruthless bastard that captured Sango and me as we were crossing his land last year. I would rather he finds us inept, not rebellious. InuYasha is not capable of withstanding an entire army. With luck, this should buy us some time."

"By the way, where did you hide all the rice in this short amount of time?" queried Eiichi.

Miroku chuckled. "It's right where it's always been. I just had Kurato-san and Wataru-san top off the urns with a handspan of millet to make it all look like millet. And I suggested that everyone would be wise to have only millet in their meals today."

---------------------------

The River Woman smiled. With luck, that had bought her anchor a year of time to build strength. The anchor was stabilizing and further meddling in that area would only rile things up again.

She turned her attention to a couple of more subtle markers, markers that tracked possibilities, not concrete people or events. Momentous possibilities were building in west-central Japan, near Kyoto, that promised to provide her with a great deal of territory in the game if it came together right. That little piece she had placed last year suggesting an alliance between two very young and minor daimyo had gone well and the nearly transparent piece was slowly drifting to its destination as a key marker that would lock their territories together. Farther to the east, a farmer's son was serving as a page in Totomi. The River Woman deemed he had learned as much there as he needed and impelled him to move on. He found a place as a foot soldier in the army of the then scarcely known Oda Nobunaga. His piece was also nearly transparent; there was a great difference between a common foot soldier and what he had the capacity to become.

Possibilities. That was the true beauty of a well-played game. It took patience, subtlety and depth to find the possibilities in people and situations, nurture them and then let them gently unfold without meddling. That was when they were most effective; when they worked while everyone's attentions were elsewhere.

---------------------------

Kagome stared at her mother in shocked dismay. The mere idea was enough to start a migraine.

"Mama, you have got to be joking!"

"What was I supposed to do?" asked Mama. "I've been holding her off for months. She told me if we were not there at New Year, she was coming to our house until you turned up. You don't exactly have a regular schedule."

Great Aunt Sakura had been elated when she discovered she had a new little namesake, then increasingly frustrated when getting a chance to examine the child proved elusive. Never one to let impediments get in her way, she had taken the bull by the horns and delivered her ultimatum: the baby comes here or I go there, for however long it takes.

Kagome sympathized with Mama; Great Aunt Sakura was a difficult house guest. But a train trip with her family to Kyoto during the busy New Year period called up a dizzying array of possibilities for disaster. And she still wasn't sure just how cognizant Great Aunt Sakura was of InuYasha's nature. She hadn't exactly spent much time looking at his face the only time they had met. Kagome blushed just remembering that incident.

"Is anyone else going to be there?" Kagome asked, desperately hoping the answer was "no".

"I'm not sure, dear. She didn't say."

Kagome collapsed on the couch in the living room and massaged her temples. There were so many ways this could go wrong.

"Sota and I will come along," Mama said encouragingly. "Between the three of us, I'm sure we can manage."

Kagome thought Mama was being overly optimistic, but at least some one else would be there to share the experience.

"All right," Kagome sighed, "But let's try to keep this really low key, shall we? There for a day, then back. I think that's all I can handle."

Mama and Sota got to business organizing the trip. In short order, they had train tickets and rooms at a ryokan reserved, then Mama asked Kagome for everyone's measurements.

"The more you blend in, the easier this will be," she said as she took the slip of paper and headed out to shop.

A couple of days later, Kagome brought everyone through the well to try on the clothes. Sakura and Tsuchiya already had an array of modern clothes; Kagome had found modern baby clothes much more manageable and she still had Tsuchiya wearing overalls as a critical control feature. Mama had bought some dress up clothes for their presentation and a couple of hats and left it at that. For InuYasha, she and Sota had agreed on jeans, pullover sweaters and a knit cap. A pair of flip-flops were held in reserve in the off chance someone could convince him to put something on his feet.

InuYasha held up his new clothes and inspected them dubiously. "Why am I wearing these again?"

"So you'll blend in with the crowd."

"Uh huh." He didn't look convinced.

"Will you at least try them?" Kagome pleaded. "We won't know how well this will work until we see them on.

"Go on," she added, shoving him into Sota's room. "Sota will help you out."

The minutes passed, and still there was no sign of InuYasha coming out of Sota's room. Kagome and Mama looked at each other, mystified. What could possibly be taking so long?

"Um, Sota, what's going on in there?" Kagome asked.

Someone snorted, then Sota called back in a half-strangled voice, "He's gotten a bit sidetracked. I guess this is the first time he's seen a zipper." This was followed by more sounds of heavily squashed giggles as Sota fought not to laugh.

"Just put them on!" Kagome erupted at the door, her temper snapping. Frantic scrambling sounds came from the other side of the wall. She leaned back against the wall behind her, her hands over her face. Sometimes she could not believes she was married to someone like this.

The door popped open and Sota shoved InuYasha back out into the hall. Kagome peered at him through her fingers and her jaw dropped. His normal loose clothing just did not do him justice. The jeans revealed a trim waist and firm muscular legs and rear, while the sweater, with its ornate stripe knit across the chest, enhanced his broad shoulders. Mama had chosen a dark burgundy, which complimented his amber eyes and silver hair well. To top it off, he was bending and flexing, testing out his range of motion in the jeans.

"How does anyone move in these things?" he demanded, scowling.

"Oh, I don't know, you seem to be doing a pretty good job of it," Kagome choked, fanning herself lightly. The temperature in the hall seemed to be climbing rapidly somehow.

"Keh." InuYasha bent over to plant his hands on the floor. "Damn, these things are tight!" He straightened and shifted his hips back and forth. "Give me one good reason why anyone would wear this stmph...!"

His eyes widened and ears pricked straight up in surprise as Kagome's ardent lip-lock caught him flat-footed. His knees looked considerable weaker when she finally let him go.

"OK, that works."

---------------------------

New Year came far too soon, Kagome found herself herding her family through the subway station, already in a dither about the time. InuYasha had absolutely no concept of timetables, so she had almost had to yank him by the collar and shove him through the well as he fussed about arrangements with Miroku while he was gone. She carried Tsuchiya, Mama held Sakura, and InuYasha and Sota managed the bags between them. She had to restrain InuYasha from vaulting the turnstile when he got frustrated with the ticket mechanism, chase down an oblivious tourist after Tsuchiya snatched his camera, then settle a screaming Sakura who had been startled by the whooshing pass of the express train through the station before their train arrived. Then their train was there and they bustled across the platform and pushed their way onto the train with the rest of the crowd.

The morning commute hour was winding down, but the car was still crowded with holiday travelers. Tsuchiya squirmed in her arms, looking all around, as Sota and InuYasha maneuvered the bags out of the way. The train lurched into motion, jostling everyone's balance. Kagome grabbed the overhead rail after rocking back into the person behind her. People shifted and turned, trying to get a little more space as the train got under way, sometimes brushing against their neighbors as they moved. Kagome felt something slide over her rear, then squeeze.

"Hey, asshole! That's my wife you're pawing!" InuYasha yelled.

The hand vanished abruptly as a man gibbered his way through a terrified apology. Kagome turned to find InuYasha holding a slight, little, gray-haired businessman in a beautifully tailored suit up in the air by his lapels as he snarled at the hapless man, nose to nose. The little man looked like he was about to faint from the terror and humiliation.

"Put him down, InuYasha," Kagome told him; she really didn't want to have to deal with a heart attack.

"Why should I?" InuYasha demanded hotly. "Fucking pervert's just going to find someone else to grope."

"That's not too likely anymore," observed Sota, noting how everyone around them was staring at the commotion. And somehow, given how crowded the car was, a significant amount of space had opened up around them.

"I'll be watching you," InuYasha growled at the man with bared teeth as he set him down. He tracked him with furious eyes as the man slunk back to station himself as near to the car's door as he could get.

When the train pulled into the next station, no one was surprised to see the businessman make his escape. Several other travelers left, to be replaced with a fresh batch, then the train was moving again. In the reshuffle, Kagome and Mama managed to claim a pair of seats.

InuYasha gave the new arrivals a belligerent inspection, then settled himself so that he stood beside Kagome's seat. A couple of minutes later, he started violently then spun around, yelping, "What is it with these people? Is everyone a pervert?"

He found himself face to face with an impeccably dressed, stunningly handsome woman. His eyebrows rose in astonishment. The woman looked him over, smiled archly and purred in a sultry voice, "My, aren't you the handsome one?"

InuYasha blinked a couple of times, then scowled suspiciously as he sniffed the air.

"I don't know what your game is, buster, but keep your hands off me," he snarled.

The woman looked him over again, sniffed, "Pity," then retreated into the crowd.

InuYasha watched with hard, narrowed eyes as she sashayed away.

"What did that woman do?" Mama asked after a moment.

"That's not a woman, and he pinched my ass!" InuYasha stated indignantly.

"Oh my!" Mama gasped.

Kagome closed her eyes and tried to beat the headache stirring in her temples back into submission.

Tsuchiya's restless squirming suddenly took on a frantic energy. "Mama, gotta go pee-pee!" he announced.

Kagome's eyes shot back open while her stomach lurched. "Sota, I thought you took him to the bathroom before we got on. You were gone forever."

Sota winced sheepishly. "About that. He got all wound up in the automatic faucets and flushers. I never did get him to go."

"Oh no..." Tsuchiya was at that stage of toilet training where the announcement came just before the dam broke, and sure enough, Kagome had no sooner braced herself for the inevitable than she felt a warm wetness spreading across her lap. She fought down the urge to cry.

"We get off at the next stop," Mama announced.

"Mama, how long until the Kyoto train leaves?" Kagome asked hopelessly.

"Twenty minutes, dear. Why?"

"Kagome sighed ruefully. "We've got to change clothes."

------------------------------

Mama had splurged on a small compartment for the trip to Kyoto. There were advantages and disadvantages to this change. The main advantage was that there were no more assaults on anyone's dignity, the disadvantage, that Tsuchiya proceeded to drive everyone crazy by doing laps across their laps to alternately look out the window or peek into the aisle. The kaleidoscope of new sights, scents and sounds finally overwhelmed Sakura and she dissolved into a puddle of tears then passed out on her father's shoulder for a long nap. By the time they arrived in Kyoto, Kagome was hissing and growling like an angry alley cat, InuYasha was barking back at her and even normally placid Mama looked about ready to start throwing things. Only Sota appeared to have retained his sense of adventure.

A short and happily uneventful trolley ride took them to their ryokan, where they were checked into adjoining rooms a couple of floors up. Kagome collapsed onto a cushion as soon as she had put down her burdens and massaged her temples, moaning, "Oh, God, I think my head is going to explode."

"Why don't I take Tsuchiya out for a tour of the grounds?" Sota offered, picking him up and vanishing out the door. Three quarters of the tension in the room vanished with him.

Kagome took several deep, steadying breaths, then said, "I'm sorry I got so snappy out there."

Sota returned after about half an hour, still in bouncy good spirits, to announce, "Hey, they've got some really nice hot spring baths on the far side of the garden."

A look of wistful longing crossed Kagome's face; it sounded like just the cure for a vicious headache. A moment later, InuYasha was shoving a robe and towel in her arms, saying, "Go on, get it out of your system."

"Are you sure?" she asked. It seemed somehow unfair to leave everyone else with the stress while she indulged in a long relaxing soak.

"Yeah, I'm sure. We won't be able to live with you until you have."

Mama joined her for an hour of decompressing, and they returned to find that Tsuchiya had finally collapsed and was now sound asleep beside his sister on a futon.

"All right! Guys turn!" exclaimed Sota as they arrived. "You up for a soak, Inu-nii-chan?"

"Sure," InuYasha said, unwinding himself from his cushion.

"Are you nuts?!" Kagome gasped. "You don't exactly take a bath with a hat on!"

"OK, tell you what, we'll go down just before they close the baths. There won't be anyone there." Sota replied.

Kagome still wasn't happy, but figured it was the best she was going to get.

The baths closed at 11:00, so at 10:00, after eating dinner and helping settle the children, Sota and InuYasha headed off, with robes and towels in hand. When they came back about an hour late, InuYasha looked exasperated while Sota looked like he was about to expire from a case of the giggles.

"Oh, Sota, I told you it wouldn't work," Kagome said, guessing they had had an encounter with some of the other guests.

"I really wouldn't worry about it too much," Sota smirked, "The other guys were completely drunk. You should have seen the looks on their faces, though. They kept sneaking these lo-ong looks out of the corners of the eyes, then looking in their drinks like they thought they were doped. We just acted like there was nothing unusual going on and..."

"There was nothing unusual going on," InuYasha harrumphed.

"Yeah, well," Sota rolled his eyes, then added, "At any rate, they're going to assume it was all the drinks."

"I'm not that strange," InuYasha grumbled.

"I'm sorry, my love, but around here, you are," Kagome informed him, kissing his cheek anyway.

He scowled at her for a moment, then started putting away his bath gear, grumbling softly.

Kagome quelled a quiver of apprehension. If today was any sign, tomorrow was going to be a disaster. She'd better get all the rest she could before morning arrived.

---------------------------

_Author's Note__: My abject apologies to everyone for taking so long getting this next chapter up. We have had the most beastly virus running through my household for the last few weeks. I'm just barely out of the worst of it right now. Anyway, as a token of my chagrin and a Christmas present to you all, I've posted a picture of Tsuchiya and Sakura in later years for your enjoyment on deviantart. Here's the link:_

http://samuraidemonpuppy. deviantart. com / art / Idiot-Brother-73178224

_just remove the extraneous spaces and go_


	28. Chapter 28 The Two Sakuras

Chapter 28 - The Two Sakuras 

The Higurashi family did not make a great effort to hurry the next morning. They took time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the ryokan's buffet, at least, as leisurely as anything involving Tsuchiya could be. After breakfast, they retired back to their rooms to dress the children and prepare for the great event.

"Mama, you did let Aunt Sakura-san know the children were very excitable, so a quiet meeting would be best, didn't you?" Kagome asked as she tied on Sakura's hat.

"I tried," Mama sighed as she wrestled Tsuchiya into a jacket. She looked up, seeing InuYasha slid Tetsusaiga under his belt as he finished his preparations. "InuYasha-kun, that sword might not be the best idea today."

"I have to keep the sword with me," InuYasha objected. "It's not safe otherwise."

"If you're worried about it being stolen..." Mama started.

"It's not that, Mama," Kagome interrupted. "It's InuYasha who's not safe without the sword."

"Oh," Mama said. After a moment, she asked, "Why?"

Kagome explained briefly that InuYasha's youkai blood was sealed by the sword so that he could control himself in life-threatening situations.

"We're just going to visit an old woman," Mama mused. "Surely there's nothing life-threatening about that. It would be very awkward explaining the sword to any policemen or guards we might meet though. Couldn't we leave the sword for just a couple of hours?"

Kagome considered it unhappily. Mama had a point. They had left the sword buried in the luggage on the trip over, with the prepared explanation that they were taking it to an antiquarian for evaluation if anyone happened to ask. That would be a lot harder to do with it strapped to InuYasha's waist on a trip to visit an old nun. And really, what could possibly happen in downtown Kyoto in modern times that InuYasha could not handle on his own? But still... too many things had happened in the past.

In the end, Mama prevailed on InuYasha to leave the sword.

The week before New Year, Mama had received an updated address for the meeting. After they got off the trolley, Kagome looked across the street at the large community center building and wondered if Mama had transcribed a number or something on the address. There was nothing about this building that suggested a quiet little family meeting with an old nun.

"Mama, this can't be right," she said as she looked up and down the impressive facade of the building.

"It's what I have," Mama said, fishing in her purse. "See, here's her note."

Kagome looked over the note and looked again at the address on the building. They did indeed match.

"Well, we won't know until we look, will we?" said Sota.

They crossed the street and entered the building, soon locating a party by the sounds coming from a large room down the hall. They stopped in the doorway to look around. Everyone in the room was dressed to the nines, making the Higurashis clothes, which were modestly dressy, but more geared to the needs of caring for small children, look a bit dowdy. Sota nudged Kagome and looked pointedly across the room. There, on the far side in a corner, Great Aunt Sakura was talking Uncle Ayigo. Kagome repressed a shudder and exchanged despairing looks with Sota. In all of the projections that Kagome had forecast for the day, Uncle Ayigo had never entered into any of them. This ratcheted the disaster factor to a whole new level.

Uncle Ayigo, or "Uncle Ego" as Sota liked to call him, was Mama's stepbrother. They were about as different in temperament as two people could be. Uncle Ayigo had worked hard to insinuate himself into the highest circles of Kyoto society. He had married the daughter of one of the old families, was well-placed in her father's firm, and now seldom failed to wave his good fortune under everyone else's noses. He had a special disdain for his hapless step-sister, who had married the son of an eccentric, no-name priest and now had nothing to show for it. The fancy hall and the extravagant array of refreshments were, of course, his work. Several of his wife's relations were clustered about in elegantly dressed groups, chatting. Kagome spotted a few of her side of the family sprinkled here and there, Aunt Aiko, a few cousins. How had a quiet meeting with Great Aunt Sakura ballooned into this extravaganza?

One of Sota's favorite cousins waved him over. Kagome and her little group followed, allowing them to postpone their encounter with her uncle. Meanwhile, Mama sucked in her gut to go deal with her obligatory greeting with Ayigo.

" G'Morning, Toyo-kun," Sota said, "What's the deal with the big party? We thought we were just having lunch with Aunt Sakura-san or something."

Toyo rolled his eyes, then said, "Uncle Ego-domo found out about it and decided to throw an impressive show in case Kagome-chan's husband was a good prospect for a business contract. He absolutely insisted."

Sota and Kagome both looked at InuYasha, then at each other and nearly burst at the seams trying not to laugh. Sota looked like he was actually looking forward to Uncle Ayigo meeting InuYasha. Toyo wasn't slow; he looked at InuYasha and remarked, "You must be Kagome-chan's husband. I'm a cousin, Toyo, their Aunt Aiko's son."

"InuYasha," InuYasha bowed slightly as he introduced himself. "This is our son, Tsuchiya, and our daughter, Sakura."

Sakura gave Toyo her usual inspection, and decided she liked him, favoring him with a smile. Tsuchiya wasn't paying any attention at all; he was busy inspecting his surroundings and bouncing on his toes, hoping for a chance to go explore soon.

Toyo grinned and said, "Let's blow out of here and go into the courtyard. It'll be easier to avoid Uncle Ego's set that way."

Sota and Toyo grabbed drinks on the way out, then joined Kagome, InuYasha and the children out in a courtyard lined with benches and with a small garden growing in the center of it.

"So, just how did Uncle Ego-san get the impression that InuYasha might be a business mark?" Sota asked. "I know we've never said anything like that."

"Well, the word going around here is that InuYasha-san is from a samurai family," Toyo explained. "Uncle Ego-domo assumed that meant he was well placed and had resources. And he's always looking for financing for one project or another."

The muted headache that had been lurking in the back of Kagome's head since last night sent a few tendrils drifting out toward her temples. "Do you suppose anyone would notice if we took the kids and snuck out?"

------------------------------------

Their quiet haven was only good until midday, when Mama found them.

"There you are. I've been looking all over. They're serving lunch now, you have to come in." Mama was looking more than a little stressed after her ordeal of coping with Ayigo. "And just so you know, Ayigo is not very happy that you have not been available."

"I'm sorry, Mama," Kagome said contritely, as she and InuYasha collected the children and prepared to return to the party hall.

Mama directed them to another room, where long tables had been laid out for lunch. Around the edges of the room, several other tables had been set up holding trays of tidbits and desserts. Toyo stayed with them and they slipped into a section of one long table monopolized by Toyo's mother and the rest of his family. Kagome relaxed slightly as she and her family was surrounded by a buffer of Higurashis and Aunt Aiko's family.

A group of young women, expensively dressed in the latest styles, started to attention and watched avidly as Kagome and her family crossed the room and joined Aiko.

"Yuki, Is that Kagome?" Chizu asked, staring. It was the only group of people she had not seen yet.

"That's her," the hard-eyed young woman in the middle confirmed.

They stared at InuYasha as he settled Tsuchiya into a seat, then sat beside Kagome.

"Is that the guy she supposedly married?" Hatsuko asked. "Good heavens,where did she findthat freak?"

"Never mind that," Chizu smirked, "Where did he find that atrocious wig?"

Hatsuko glanced archly at Chizu. "Well, that was worth the price of admission. What do you suppose he looks like underneath all that fuzz?"

Yuki snarled under her breath, "If that's the guy I'm supposed to go play kissy-kissy with, I am going to personally murder my father."

"Now, now, Yuki, you might bowl him over at first glance. And maybe he's eccentric and loaded," Chizu snickered. "Shall we go for a closer look?"

They encircled Kagome as she was telling Tsuchiya to please stop stabbing at the tofu in his soup with his chopsticks and eat some beans. Sakura's growl warned her something was up. Turning, Kagome looked up at the ringleader with grim recognition.

"Ah. What do you want, Yuki?" she asked shortly.

"What, not Yuki-chan any more?" Yuki queried with a malicious gleam in her eye. "Is that any way to talk to your best cousin?"

Kagome held her gaze, remaining silent. Her past experiences with Yuki had involved either patronizing bullying or haughty ostracism. The last time she had seen Yuki, Yuki had not even found her worth noticing.

Yuki made a show of pouting momentarily, then said coyly, "Well, are you going to introduce us?"

Kagome unclenched her jaw long enough to say, "InuYasha, this is my cousin Yuki. I don't know the other two ladies. Yuki, my husband, InuYasha, our son, Tsuchiya and our daughter, Sakura."

"Inu...Yasha," Yuki repeated with mock deliberation, like she was trying to fix it in her head. "How...unusual." Yuki's friends tittered. Kagome could feel InuYasha tensing beside her.

Yuki stood a moment, twirling a lock of hair while she studied InuYasha. She raised her eyebrows, smiling, and said, "Really, that is the most amazing hair. Wherever did you find it?" The smile never touched her eyes, which remained hard and mean.

InuYasha had had plenty of time to take in the undercurrents. He was well acquainted with false smiles and taunting words, and did not much care to continue the game.

"The hair," he said, staring back with equally hard eyes. "Yeah, lots of people start with the hair. There's generally a few comments about my eyes too. Most people miss the more dangerous details, like the fangs and the claws." He inspected his fingers a moment, then cracked his knuckles. "Especially the claws. And I've heard every possible variation on how I got this way. It's gotten very boring, and you're never right. We're going to enjoy our meal now, so why don't you take your wonderful cleverness and shove off."

He turned back to his meal and prodded Tsuchiya to stop mooshing his rice and try some pickle or fish.

Sakura growled again from InuYasha's arms, her eyes fixed on Yuki. Yuki shot an irritated glance at her, then did a double-take, staring more closely at the baby. They locked eyes for a while, the arrogant black eyes meeting the disapproving golden ones. In the end, Yuki was the one who dropped her eyes with a shamed flush.

"Way to land the sale, Yuki-chan," Toyo smirked from the other side of the table.

Yuki shot Toyo a lethal glare and flounced off, followed by her retainers.

----------------------------------

Tsuchiya looked up and down the table, observing everyone. Papa, Uncle Sota and Grandma were happily talking to the people sitting across from them. Mama had slipped out to change and feed Sakura. For the moment, no one was paying any attention to him. He stopped whacking the squash and spinach on his plate and quietly slid off his cushion. He really wanted a closer look at the colorful displays on the tables edging the room and he had waited long enough.

Kagome came in a few minutes later with a sleepy-eyed Sakura and settled back on her cushion. Looking around, she asked, "Where's Tsuchiya?"

"Ummm," said Sota, looking at Tsuchiya's empty cushion.

"He was here a moment ago," added InuYasha, craning his neck to look around.

In the far corner of the room, the tablecloth of a large table decked with many-tiered platters of colorful confections suddenly slid off to the side and vanished, carrying with it its load which landed on the floor with a resounding crash. Kagome and InuYasha both flinched, cringing. That much noise could only mean that Tsuchiya was involved somehow. Both of them hastened to the corner to fish a howling Tsuchiya out of the pile of tumbled platters and spattered cakes.

"Oh, look at you," Kagome fussed as she tried futilely to pick the cake and icing off of him. He was liberally smeared with several colors of icing intermingled with chunks of cake and glistening gobbets of jelly.

"Never mind him, check out the mess!" Sota and Mama had arrived on Kagome and InuYasha's heels. Mama whisked off with Tsuchiya and the baby bag to clean him up and change his clothes. Sota jumped in to help InuYasha and Kagome dump the fallen platters and broken plates into the middle of the ruined tablecloth.

Great Aunt Sakura drifted near as the catering staff swooped in to take over the clean up. Her black eyes were dancing as she surveyed the mess.

"I knew I could count on you to liven this lot of stiffs up. Shall I take the baby while you mop yourself up?"

Kagome stared up at her from the floor, appalled. "Liven things up?! It.. It's a disaster! How am I supposed to be able to face anyone after this?"

"Psht!" the old woman scoffed. "It's not like you enjoy their company. You want to see them about as much as I do. This should guarantee you won't be included in any further invitations for at least ten years. I should be so lucky."

"Ohhh..." While being blacklisted by Uncle Ayigo and his relations had its appeal, Kagome had been raised to care about the opinions of others. She was in an agony of shame and embarrassment. She wondered where Aunt Sakura had come by her hardy disregard of what other people thought.

"I do still want to meet our young Sakura," Aunt Sakura firmly reminded her. "You can't dodge me all day." Trust Aunt Sakura to bluntly strike the nail on the head.

"She doesn't warm up to people right off," Kagome warned her as she gave up and handed Sakura to her great-great aunt.

"Good for her," the old lady replied, lifting the child up to where she could get a good look at her face.

Sakura's bright measuring gaze met the equally measuring gaze of the old woman. Silently, the two Sakuras assessed each other. After a long moment, the old woman's face brightened into an expression of delighted satisfaction as the younger Sakura steadfastly refused to drop her eyes.

"Good! A girl with some spine. I would have been sorely disappointed if she had been just another mushbrain with a pretty face."

Kagome and Sota looked at each other with bemusement. Really, the old dragon just got more surprising with each exposure.

Sakura made her judgement then, a slow smile tinged with a great deal of respect. Great Aunt Sakura wasn't one to cuddle with, but she was one to trust.

"Huh! So, you think I might be worth your time, do you?" Aunt Sakura snorted. "I suppose I ought to be flattered. You and I will talk when you get older. I haven't met anyone truly interesting in a long time. You may just fit the bill if you don't get ruined in the meantime."

"Ruined?" InuYasha bristled.

"Yes, sir; no, sir; what do you think, sir?" Aunt Sakura said scornfully. "Everyone goes in a circle and no one ever thinks. This girl has a mind - make sure she uses it."

"NooO**OO**Oooooo!" The loud squeal came from the ladies room, then Tsuchiya, dressed only in a T-shirt, flew in through the door and dashed across the room screaming, "No! No! No nappies! Nonappies! I'm nottired!"

Mama rushed in the door after him, holding underpants and overalls.

Great Aunt Sakura roared with laughter as she watched Tsuchiya fly up the aisles between the tables. "I see someone takes after his father."

InuYasha flushed indignantly. "Hey! It's not like I make a habit of... Never mind." He broke off to go intercept Tsuchiya as he reached the end of one of the aisles.

"My, he is the active one," Aunt Sakura observed as Tsuchiya dodged his father and his grandmother and took off in another direction, still yelling. "However do you keep up with him?"

"About like that," Sota admitted as InuYasha was forced to change direction suddenly and launch into a flying tackle to capture him. Howling, Tsuchiya squirmed and flailed uselessly in his father's arms as Mama finished dressing him.

"It's good to see there's still a bit of spark in the family. I know Kazuko was in a tight spot when she married Seige-san, but really!"

InuYasha carried the hysterically sobbing Tsuchiya over to join Kagome. Tsuchiya's eyes were ringed with dark circles, glazed with exhaustion. Kagome shook her head and held him as the tantrum ran down. Very soon, his head was snuggled on her shoulder and with a last couple of hiccups, he was sound asleep.

Kagome and Aunt Sakura found a quiet side room to lay the children down for a nap. A couple of other children were already there, curled up on comforters. Kagome wrapped Tsuchiya and Sakura up warmly and set them down to join the other children.

------------------------------------

Sakura woke abruptly, startled out of her nap by something. She was not at home; she did not recognize the scents and sounds around her, but that was not what had disturbed her. She could still sense the comforting presence of her parents, even if they weren't in the room. No, it was something else, something subliminal, barely detectable, though deeply malevolent. Carefully, she sat up and looked around. Something flittered past, just at the edge of her vision. It wasn't youkai; she knew youkai, Shippo, Kirara, even Papa. This was something very different; she couldn't detect its shape or substance, just the powerful sense of some deeply evil awareness coalescing in the room.

A shiver ran down her spine as the something drew together to a single point, circled the room, then swooped down to hover over the little group of children. It seemed to inspect each of them in turn, discounting the other children quickly, but hovering for a long time over Tsuchiya, then circling around her head, as though inspecting her from all angles. She followed its progress as it moved, catching glimpses of its aura from the edges of her sight.

Words came to her, not spoken words, but speech nonetheless. Sakura "listened" to the musings of the thing as it hung in space near her.

"_What have we here? Little youkai children. Whatever could they be doing in this time? It's been so long, so very long, since I last encountered youkai. It took me over four hundred years to escape that chamber in Hell that unnatural bitch of a youkai miko cast me into, __I__, who was destined for Nirvana!_

"_Damn her soul, if soul she has! That youkai bitch should still be alive, youkai are immortal, and nothing could exorcise that one. I will have her!_

"_But how the world has changed. The youkai are no more. I've been searching for decades and this is all I find. I know that bitch's aura, I could have sworn I saw it here!_

"_Babies! What is it about these babies that called me? Could these perhaps be __her__ children? Oh, how delicious. That would be even sweeter._"

The half-seen aura circled again, slowly, and Sakura gasped and whimpered as it reached out to touch her. She shrank back from the touch, looking out with frightened eyes.

"_No..._" the aura mused. "_Not her child. How very interesting. Yes. I would recognize those eyes anywhere. How is it that I find you, four hundred years and more later, and yet just a babe?_

"_Buddha is kind to his servant. He found a way to serve the unnatural bitch up to him before she can banish him back to the underworld. This time, you are mine!_"

A dark swirling void formed in the center of the aura, growing to an engulfing maw as the aura rushed toward her. Sakura screamed and thrust her chubby baby arms at the maw, repelling it with a surge of spiritual force of her own.

------------------------------------

In the main hall of the community center, InuYasha was in the middle of telling Uncle Ayigo just where he could put his demand that InuYasha apologize to the renowned financier Imamura Isamu for accosting him on the Tokyo subway. It turned out that Ayigo was courting the great man's favor in hopes of obtaining financing for a speculative expansion of his business. The realization that the ruffian who had so humiliated Imamura was his niece's husband was not settling well with Ayigo.

"Hold it just a minute," InuYasha told a red-faced Ayigo, "You're telling me this creep Imamura grabs Kagome's butt and I've got to apologize to him?! Just how does that work? I don't care it he's the son of the Emperor, no one gropes my wife!"

"I'm not going to let an illbred boor like you destroy my business prospects!" Ayigo spat. "You are going to..."

"I'm the boor!" InuYasha yelled. "What do you do when someone molestsyour wife? It sounds to me like you kiss his butt and thank him!"

Ayigo went from red to sputtering purple as his propriety was challenged. "I have never in my life been spoken to like that, young man. You need to seriously reconsider how you address your elders and betters."

Ayigo's affronted lecture went entirely unheeded as Sakura's scream rang from the room down the hall.

"Sakura!" InuYasha spun and bounded over the heads of the guests in the room to land in the doorway then disappeared down the hall. Kagome was only seconds behind him, followed by a stampede of the guests.

InuYasha bolted down the hall on all fours, scrambling at the door to the children's room to leap in, snarling, very much the aroused guard dog. Inside the room, he skidded to a halt and crouched tensely in front of Tsuchiya and the sobbing Sakura, growling furiously and sniffing the air for the source of the danger. His alarm rose to even greater heights when he could not locate the source of the threat. It was there, in the room all around him, but he could not see, smell or hear it.

Kagome was in the room seconds after him, her senses stretched out seeking the aura of the spirit too.

"Ghost!" she exclaimed as she caught the characteristic aura of a dead soul. "A very old and angry ghost. What could it possibly want here?"

The aura of the ghost shifted and spun about the room, examining the new arrivals. The distraught parents of the other children snatched them up and fled, unmolested, but when Sota and Mama tried to evacuate Tsuchiya and Sakura, the ghost dove again at Sakura, soul devouring maw opened wide.

Sakura screamed in Mama's arms as Mama ducked and tried to evade it. Kagome darted in after the ghost, warding it away from Sakura and Mama. InuYasha jumped in front of them again, looking around wildly as he tried to locate the spirit. Panicky frustration surged through him as he cast about blindly.

"Where is it?" he yelled, "I can't find it!" His panic spiraled out of control, releasing the barely-controlled youki bound within him. His pupils began to glow with an eerie blue light, the rest of his eyes turning red as the youki light illuminated the blood flowing behind them. As the vortex of youki built around him, his fangs and claws grew and jagged purple stripes throbbed into his cheeks.

"Oh no," Kagome gasped, "Now we're in trouble." She turned to the cluster of people gaping at the scene from the doorway and snapped sharply, "Get out! Move! Clear the building!"

As they continued to stare, stunned, she pushed out with her hand. "Now!" she commanded. The force of her push got them moving.

Soon, the only people left on the scene were the Higurashis, Great Aunt Sakura, and, unexpectedly, Uncle Ayigo.

Aunt Sakura's black eyes glanced sharply about the room, quickly locating the ghost.

"What's this?" she demanded. "What brought this spirit in here?"

"He wants Sakura," Kagome cried, "And I'm not sure I can handle him and InuYasha at the same time!"

"Sakura!" the old woman exclaimed, "What could he possibly want in a little baby? And just what is going on with InuYasha?"

"This really isn't a good time for explanations," Kagome cried as the ghost wheeled around InuYasha for another pass at Sakura. Kagome lunged again after the ghost, sending another surge of spiritual power after it.

The ghost hissed its fury and turned to attack Kagome. "_Unnatural mother of an unnatural child! Not only do you consort with demons, you also pass through time untouched! What black kami do you serve that countenances such things?_"

Aunt Sakura hastened to the children and pressed ofuda onto their clothes. Both children started crying as the ofuda stung them, but Mama and Sota held them in place, judging the ghost to be the greater danger.

Kagome called up a spell of banishment and clapped her hands together sharply, invoking the gods. A powerful pulse surged from her to the realm of the kami.

The River Woman looked up from the game field, surprised, at the call. She seldom monitored InuYasha and Kagome when they were in the modern world; their little portion of it was so benign it normally didn't warrant her attention. She surged to her feet and leapt in a smooth motion toward the human realm, a spiritual ripple that spiraled through the ether, gathering speed to become a numinous waterfall that landed in the little room in Kyoto, splashing down and eddying to reform into a rapidly flowing stream that coursed and quested about.

The ghost twisted away and tried to dissipate to another realm. The River Woman swirled around him, blocking his passage. Hissing, the ghost darted about, probing for a hole.

Emma-O took note of the invocation and discovered an escapee from the Chamber of the Zealots. A moment later, a stern Gatekeeper arrived in the room with shackles for the ghost. The Gatekeeper soon had him bound and returned to his special hole in Hell.

The ghost was gone, but InuYasha was still locked in his youkai vortex, unable to quell the building maelstrom, the only thought left to him was that his precious Sakura required his protection. Burning with his extravagant response to his inadequacy, he turned toward Mama, ready to rend anything that even touched his darling. A low growl built in the back his throat, warning of dire consequences when the last vestige of his control snapped.

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried. "InuYasha, it's over! Get a grip on yourself!"

He was beyond hearing her. Nothing mattered except Sakura, Sakura who was crying, Sakura who was in someone else's arms.

"Damn!" Kagome took the gamble, hoping it would be enough the shatter the vortex. "Sit!" she snapped sharply.

InuYasha crashed to the floor. A moment later, he looked up and Kagome was relieved to see golden eyes glaring back at her.

"Did you have to do that?" he demanded, aggrieved.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, coming to crouch beside him and stroke his hair. "It really was the gentlest way to bring you back."

InuYasha reached out and pulled Kagome close, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent.

"He's going to rip her throat out!" Ayigo shrieked as InuYasha shifted to pull her closer.

"Ayigo, get out!" Aunt Sakura snapped. "This is beyond you."

The last ominous swirlings of youki thinned and faded as InuYasha clung to Kagome, holding her tight in his embrace.

"Wha... What manner of beast are you?" Ayigo howled, beside himself with terror.

InuYasha flinched.

"Ayigo, one more word out of you and I will curse you and your house," Aunt Sakura exclaimed in disgust.

Ayigo blanched and fled.

InuYasha got up and gathered Sakura in his arms before turning haunted eyes to Kagome. "What happened? What did I do?"

"Nothing," Aunt Sakura replied. "Ayigo is being an ass. Bungling twit! I'll settle him later." Her bird-bright eyes remained fixed on the Higurashis, however, especially on InuYasha and Kagome. "Now, would anyone care to tell me what's really going on?"

By this time, InuYasha had had enough. He made no attempt to contain his surliness as Aunt Sakura asked probing questions about his background and how he had become entangled with the Higurashis. Kagome fretted herself into a dither as she tried to guess what Aunt Sakura was going to do with the information, especially in light of InuYasha's sullenness. She could just see a witch-hunt coming; she might never be able to return to modern times again.

Eventually, Aunt Sakura was satisfied. She sat a while in silent thought, digesting it, then murmured, "Absolutely extraordinary."

InuYasha muttered a couple of curses about meddling old women under his breath. He was staring into a far corner of the room, his chin on his hand, just sweating out his time there.

Aunt Sakura snapped a sharp glance at him then leaned over and said, "Relax, boy. I happen to like you. I spent the better part of the day watching you with Kagome and those children. You're doing a fine job of taking care of them. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the family."

------------------------------------

Once they were safely back in their suites in the ryokan, InuYasha's simmering temper exploded.

"That was why I need my sword with me!" he yelled as he stomped over to reclaim it. "None of that would have happened if I'd had Tetsusaiga!"

"InuYasha, even with Tetsusaiga, you wouldn't have been able to handle that ghost," Kagome said quietly. "The building would probably be leveled if you had brought it."

"But I wouldn't have lost it," he said angrily. "I don't even want to think about how close I came to killing everyone."

He wrenched himself away when Kagome tried to lay a comforting hand on his arm and retreated to a far corner of the room. "I have no business being here," he said in a soft voice rank with self-loathing. "I don't belong among people."

"No, I won't let you run," Kagome said. "You belong among people at least as much as you belong among youkai."

"How can you say that?" he snarled. "I'm a half-breed freak that's barely teetering on the edge of control. I should just admit it and take myself back into the forest until some stronger youkai finally relieves the world of the problem of my existence. What the Hell do you see in me anyway?"

Kagome looked at his back, grieving to see him so lost in his pain. Every time she had gotten him built up to where he felt like he might be worth something, that he had a right to enjoy the gifts of love, something like this happened and it all shattered and came tumbling back down. How could she help him believe in himself?

"I see my husband, my lover, the father of my children, but above all, I see my dear friend, beside whom I promised to stand no matter what, beating himself up again over what he is. You don't get to choose how you are made. And buried in the heart of that 'half-breed freak' is a fine man who cares very deeply about his wife and his children and I wouldn't give up that man for anything in the world."

"Kagome, you just don't get it."

"No. I do get it. I've been with you for years and I've seen everything. And despite it all, I'm still here and I still love you. You're just going to have to get used to it."

He blew out a frustrated breath, but turned and hugged her close anyway. After a long moment, he whispered into her hair, in a voice so choked with pain she could barely make him out, "Don't you see? I'm going to end up killing you someday."

------------------------------------

The River Woman paid an unusual call to the realm of the dead seeking to find out more about the ghost she had helped capture. She stood with the Gatekeeper outside the door to the Chamber of the Zealots and watched him howling out his fury at his fate.

"_Who is he?_" she asked as he howled yet again that he was a chosen of the Buddha and belonged at his side in Nirvana, not in this hole of Hell.

"_He calls himself Daruma, believes himself to be a priest_," the Gatekeeper replied. "_He was a member of the Ikko-ikki based in Mikawa. He hasn't made much sense since he arrived. He obsesses only on how his destined place in Nirvana was denied to him by a youkai miko who cast him here. You know as well as I do that those who are destined for Nirvana go to Nirvana. He's not going to be leaving here until his obsession runs its course and he confronts the demons of his past, and the demons that landed him here were not that miko._"

"_What can you tell me about those demons?_" the River Woman asked. A person's demons held information to who that person was and how their fate befell them.

"_Nothing_," the Gatekeeper said flatly. "_He won't conjure them up. He's so fixed on the miko and the last moment of his life that all other memories are suppressed._"

"_Do you know anything about the miko?_"

"_Only that he claims she was a youkai and that her command of exorcism exceeded his. The images he conjures up are too fractured to make out. The only one that comes in clearly is a brightly glowing naginata that sweeps in a great circle to strike him down._"

The River Woman watched Daruma for a while longer. There was no doubt he was mad. Even so, she wondered if his conviction that little Sakura was his bane was correct.

1


	29. Chapter 29 Toushi

Chapter 29 - Toushi 

The River Woman studied the pattern of the pieces which lay to the south of Edo in the province of Mikawa. Earlier developments had enabled the young Tokugawa Ieyasu to rise from hostage of the rival Imagawa clan to leader of his own. She had encouraged him to accept Oda Nobunaga as his ally and overlord. She softly fed his great patience, advising him there was more to be gained in watchful waiting than in being the chief right now. _Let others lead the fights and attract the ire of the daimyo_. Still, he could not become too passive, people must remember he was a force to reckon with.

The Ikko-ikki temple-fortress, Azukizaka, based in Mikawa was becoming restive, preparing a push for self-rule that would fracture the province once again into a cluster of warring hotspots. As Ieyasu assembled an army to quash the nascent rebellion, the River Woman placed a couple more markers in the region, gently undermining the solidarity of the Ikko-ikki.

The Tokugawas were able to move during the moment of schism and expel the Ikko-ikki from their temple. Several transparent pieces flared to life, completing an enclosure of the region. The River Woman gathered in her opponent's pieces and claimed Mikawa.

---------------------------------------------

The cluster of young monks stood at the edge of the temple's support town and watched Azukizaka Hoganji burn. It had been a near thing, their escape. Even now, shrouded by the night's darkness, they could not be sure of remaining unobserved for long. The steady roar of the fire held them transfixed, flames licked and danced along the great timbers and sparks tumbled and swirled away into the night to become one with the distant stars.

"All is suffering," Shinjinbukaimaru quoted softly as they watched their home and safe haven drift away on the smoke.

Shiniri twitched, stung. How could it be? Amida Buddha was the one true God. They were his children, the people sworn to his word. How could such things happen to the faithful?

The kami of Shiniri's village had not been strong enough to protect it from the ravages of a border dispute between two squabbling warlords, so he had fled the destruction. He thought he had found a haven here. It had seemed so safe, so strong. Azukizaka was so big that surely no daimyo could destroy it. And surely, Amida Buddha's protection was on them.

Shiniri looked around at his fellow student monks. Gentle Akimi, who gazed forlornly, crying, as the temple's great beams collapsed in a roar of crackling sparks, Fujio, white-faced and stricken as he obsessively prayed his way around a rosary over and over without ever knowing what he was doing, Shinjinbukaimaru, who had survived the great fire at Ishigama Hoganji and was now turning away from the fire to calmly direct a frightened clerk with the temple's records to where he might find such of the senior clergy as had survived.

Shinjinbukaimaru was well respected among the student monks. He always seemed to understand the sutras. He had a graceful acceptance of life's troubles, nothing seemed to perturb him.

" Shinjinbukaimaru, how did this come to be?" Shiniri asked. "We have served Amida Buddha well. We offered prayers, celebrating his glory and extolling his peace. Azukizaka Hoganji cared for all his people in these lands. Surely we are not deserving of this fate."

"All is suffering," Shinjinbukaimaru repeated. "The gods strive toward unknown goals and sometimes we small ones find ourselves standing in the way. It has nothing to do with our virtue. We pick it up and begin again, elsewhere if we must."

Was that all Shinjinbukaimaru had to offer? Philosophical words on the nature of fate? Where was the solution? How could Shiniri keep this from happening to him again? The problem was not with the beneficence and power of Amida Buddha, it lay in the gelded attitude of the priests. He, for one, was not going to sit still and take it.

"Is there no solution?" Shiniri's words were humble, respectful, but his voice was sharp with accusation, with disgust at inaction. "How does one escape from this endless persecution? I was driven from my village, my family slaughtered. I came here, to a great Hoganji, seeking only peace and am once more driven forth. Does Amida have no answer?"

Shinjinbukaimaru looked long at Shiniri, then said quietly, "There is Nirvana. It is the only way out."

---------------------------------------------

As the dust settled in Mikawa the River Woman returned to monitoring developments around her anchor.

The serene blue knotted ball that orbited the main piece had become tantalizingly active lately. The knot loosened and writhed on occasion, most often after a lightening strike from her brother's cloud. Red glowed from the depths of the knot in brief volcanic flares, smoke puffed out between the loosened loops of the knot. The River Woman watched avidly, convinced that she knew what was encased in that knot, if she could just grasp the right clue.

---------------------------------------------

Shortly after New Year, Sakura started crawling, once again ramping up the level of chaos in the InuYasha household by several notches. She was just as intrepid an explorer as her brother had been, but there were some very telling differences in style. Where Tsuchiya moved restlessly from place to place, never staying long in one location, Sakura got caught up in things she found in her path, often spending hours exploring all facets of the thing she had found. This did not necessarily make Kagome's life any easier; Sakura was at least as capable of driving her crazy as Tsuchiya had been. The day she spent exploring all the different sounds that could be made by banging together kitchen implements would live long in Kagome's memory, as would the day she somehow managed to get into the miso pot and massaged miso into the bamboo steamer lids, herself, and everything else she could reach with a dedication that Tsuchiya had never been able to muster, creating an epic and very smelly mess that took days to scrub clean.

Her newfound mobility also meant that Sakura and Tsuchiya were now very much in each other's hair. In the manner of younger siblings everywhere, Sakura followed Tsuchiya everywhere he went, and in the manner of older siblings everywhere, Tsuchiya deeply resented it.

Any time Tsuchiya actually did settle down for a few minutes to play with something, it was not long before Sakura was right in the middle of it, grabbing and inspecting the pieces or putting a critical piece in her mouth. Tsuchiya's automatic response was to snatch the piece back and shove Sakura roughly aside. Sakura was still too little to understand his annoyance and Tsuchiya was still too little to have much impulse control. There were days when Kagome could swear the only thing she had done all day was continually pry the two of them apart.

InuYasha still took Sakura out on morning excursions most days, giving Kagome at least a hope of getting something useful done in a day. Shippo was usually amenable to taking Tsuchiya out for some serious boy play. And Kagome and Sango swapped turns about once a week, one of them minding all of the kids for a day while the other did a major catch-up swoop on the derelict chores. Even so, visits to Mama for a full-body recharge were still required on a regular basis.

Mama, especially, loved these times with her grandchildren, and she lavished them with puzzles, books, building blocks and crayons. She and Sota would spend hours reading stories and working puzzles with them. Sota built great towers of blocks for Tsuchiya to knock over. Grampa liked to take Sakura and draw pictures for her while he told her stories of all the old legends.

Life progressed in this vein for the next several months as the children grew, each becoming stronger, faster, more agile and each finding more ways to annoy each other.

What had started as accidental nudgings and innocent misunderstandings gradually developed into actively managed campaigns of aggression. Tsuchiya was more blatant about it. He shoved Sakura over, ordered her around and snatched her toys away. Sakura, by no means always innocent, became an expert at timing her howls of protest for just that moment in time when InuYasha could hear her but had not been able to see what led up to the fuss. Still, it was hard to deny that Tsuchiya was doing the bulk of the bullying.

Kagome and InuYasha found themselves in opposing camps when it came to handling the situation. Kagome tried to insist that Tsuchiya express his annoyance in gentler ways, but she remembered just how provoking a younger sibling could be. InuYasha, still stinging from the way Sesshomaru had always treated him, was firmly in Sakura's camp.

It was shortly after harvest, during a visit to Mama's house, that it all came to a head. Sakura, now eighteen months old, had the building blocks laid out on the living room floor. She had spent the better part of an hour sorting them into piles, first by color, then by shape, and now she had them neatly arranged from small to large. Inuyasha was flopped down beside her, commenting on what she was doing and naming the colors and shapes as she went.

She was happily surveying the results of her work when Tsuchiya galloped into the room, jumped right into the middle of her carefully constructed array, kicked the blocks everywhere in a joyful clatter, then bounded off to bounce on the couch a few times before he plopped down to bother Sota while he did his homework.

Sakura stared at her ruined array, seething. This time, however, she did not burst out crying. This time, her little jaw clenched in fury, she climbed to her feet, picked up the biggest, longest block in the set, marched purposefully up to Tsuchiya and whacked him over the head with it as hard as she could. This time, it was Tsuchiya who screamed in shock and outrage.

He was doubly shocked when his father had very little sympathy for him.

"You've had it coming for months," he told his son. "She finally got sick of you bullying her and decided to do something about it."

Tsuchiya wasn't going to take that. He was the nii-chan and she was the imouto-chan. He launched himself at his sister, snarling, intent on putting her in her place. She wasn't about to give an inch, fierce determination making up for her smaller size.

Kagome was appalled. All that work she had been putting in to teach her children peaceful conflict resolution evaporated before her eyes in a puff of superheated steam. Futilely, she tried to pull them apart and impose peace, receiving several nasty scratches in the process.

InuYasha could not have been prouder of his little "Toushi", his little "Fighting Spirit". It was a blow for the little guy, a clear warning that they were not just going to let the big kid win. All those shots he would dearly have loved to have landed on Sesshomaru passed through his mind as he cheered his little girl on. He never called her "Sakura" again.

---------------------------------------------

Tsuchiya's cloud scored another direct hit on his sister's blue knot.

Slowly, then with building speed and violence, the knot quivered, writhed, then loosened in a great puff of smoke. A blast of red fire shot from the heart of the knot, then it unraveled smoothly, spinning and twisting, to reveal a tiny blue dragon, golden eyes glowing with ire as it gathered into a crouch and launched itself after the cloud in a parody of the myth of the Celestial Dragon pursuing the Pearl of Wisdom through the Sky.

The River Woman gasped in mingled horror and delight. A dragon, and an aroused one at that! How could she have missed that? She sat back on her heels, thinking furiously. That particular shade of teal was peculiar to sea dragons. Had old Ryuujin decided to make his play thus, in retaliation for the meddling in the Coral Palace? She would have to visit the Coral Palace, see what she could tease out of that cagey old man.

Still, she now had at her disposal a child with steadfast determination, great courage and a powerful mind, supple, subtle, capable of great depth and penetrating focus. This could be a powerful tool, assuming she could manage to direct the young dragon-soul. Dragons were notoriously headstrong.

1


	30. Chapter 30 Sumio is Roused

Chapter 30 - Sumio is Roused

Muchitsujo-rei circled Mikawa in stunned disbelief. While he had been north, fomenting more turmoil for the Hojo by inciting the Satomi to attack in another pointless, losing assault, then bathing in the energies released, Mikawa had gotten away from him.

He circled again, noting the unbroken array of markers claiming Mikawa. When he had last checked, there had been only a few scattered markers, pieces that seemed incidental to other campaigns. When had the others been placed?

The loss, although not huge, was significant. His influence was being fractured.

Grimly, he flew back north and flew over the Hojo lands. All within them and most of their neighbors remained under his influence. All, except for that provoking anchor. He really had to do something about it.

He circled around it once again, probing it, as he considered what he already knew about it. The piece was very strong in the supernatural realms. Between the hanyou's sword and the miko's innate spiritual capabilities, he could not find a chink in the armor. However, the hanyou was disinclined to harm humans unless pushed to it, and the miko was physically small. She had become beyond proficient at archery, but had no other fighting skills to speak of. So, they were weakest when most in the physical realm.

He would have to use wholly human agents.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After last year's bungled collection of the taxes in the outlying villages, Yoshimi, tax collector under Shimomura Sumio, had resolved that this year he would do better. He set out early, just as the local villages were showing signs of getting ready to bring in the grain, with a retinue of five drovers, each with a string of pack horses, his personal servant, a pair of clerks to handle the papers, and twenty mounted soldiers armed with an array of weapons to enforce his levies. He hoped to catch the outlying villages as they were still in the midst of bringing in the crops, the better to account for a full tax.

He did not reckon on the accelerated harvests possible when InuYasha was helping. The harvests in both Kaede's and Masahiro's villages were completed and secured a week before he rode in. Knowing what was coming, the councils of both villages had assembled and decided just how much they were willing to release for Yoshimi's levy, and had entrusted the rest to InuYasha and Kagome's protection. Unbeknownst to anyone else, the little wellhouse in the Higurashi Shrine of modern times was packed to the rafters with carefully labeled sacks of rice.

Shortly after the rice was squirreled away, a pack of very disappointed bandits tried to raid Kaede's village, only to be repelled empty handed.

When Yoshimi arrived in the village, he wasted no time heading for the village warehouse to collect his due. When he had scoured every grain of rice from the building, excluding only the seed rice, he then raided every other building in the village, growing apoplectic with fury when he found only millet and other low grains within.

Finally, he stormed the shrine to find the council of elders assembled waiting for him, crouched on their knees in deep obeisance, Kaede at their head. InuYasha stood leaning against the wall in a corner near the door, watching the proceedings with a steely eye.

"It is entirely insufficient!" Yoshimi roared accusingly. "I will have you killed one by one until you tell me where you have hidden the rest of the rice!"

"You're lucky you got that much," InuYasha remarked coldly. "We had a pack of brigands run through here two days ago."

Yoshimi swept a scornful eye over InuYasha, taking in the youthful, armorless figure and single shabby sword. The white hair and dog's ears suggested he might not be entirely human, but he didn't look like much.

"Who would you be?" he demanded.

"The warrior hired to keep the village safe," InuYasha replied, confronting the scorn with unconcerned coolness.

"If you're the best they can afford, it's no wonder this is all the rice they have left. They would have been better served saving their money for their lord," Yoshimi said haughtily.

"Who only appears to collect his money," InuYasha countered. "If that was the case, you would have nothing to collect."

"Insolent brat!"

"Yeah, yeah, I've been hearing that crap for years," InuYasha remarked, rolling his eyes. "However, I believe your business is with the council."

Yoshimi dismissed InuYasha and turned his spiteful eye back on the council, returning to his original plan.

"You two," he said, gesturing to a pair of soldiers, "let's start with Grandma. She'll have us pointed to the rice in no time."

The soldiers strode forward and grabbed Kaede's arms to drag her before Yoshimi.

"How about it Grandma? Where have you hidden the rest of the rice?" Yoshimi asked, staring down at her.

"You have what you are due. There is no more available." Kaede replied.

"Liar!" Yoshimi's foot lashed out and caught Kaede in the face, bloodying her nose."

InuYasha was on the soldiers in an instant; each of them suddenly felt a crushing hand tipped with steely claws dig into his shoulder, forcing him to release his grip on the old woman. InuYasha steered them around until Kaede was safely behind him, then shoved them stumbling back among their fellows as Yoshimi scrambled out of his range.

"I guess you weren't listening earlier," he called to Yoshimi. "As the village's protector, I cannot allow you to treat these people this way. This meeting will be conducted peacefully, or not at all.

"You all right, old woman?" he asked Kaede more quietly as she laboriously regained her feet.

"It's not serious," she said shakily.

"Then, you'd best get back," he replied as he continued to eye Yoshimi and his retinue. Yoshimi, rather than being warned off, looked like he was winding up for another attack.

As Kaede hustled back to join the council at the back of the shrine, InuYasha shifted so that he was in the center of the room, balanced loosely on the balls of his feet, ready to flick into motion in an instant. Yoshimi, who was already tired of playing around, sent his whole force at InuYasha.

"Just make sure you cut him down!" he shrieked as they charged, some with spears and naginata lowered and the rest with swords raised.

"Tch!" InuYasha summersaulted straight up into the air and came down over the shafts of the pole weapons, making sure to break all of them at least once as he came. Then he whirled up and spun his way through the swords, breaking some and sending the rest flying against the walls of the shrine. His fists and elbows flew, dropping most of the soldiers in their tracks. He jumped free of the muddle of soldiers and grabbed Yoshimi, knocking aside his sword contemptuously.

Lifting him off his feet, he snarled into his face, "Now, let me tell you what a smart tax collector would do. He would gather up his goons, take his fucking taxes and leave. You don't want me to start killing people."

Still carrying Yoshimi with one hand, InuYasha kicked randomly into the jumbled pile of soldiers and was answered by a few yelps and groans.

"All right, you bastards, you've caused enough trouble here. Time to pick it up and go home."

One of the soldiers, with more initiative than brains, grabbed a loose sword and tried to cut him down, only to be dropped with a quick thump on the head.

"You can carry him," InuYasha said of the dazed soldier, then ordered. "Leave the weapons and move, before I get impatient."

That was enough incentive to get the soldiers moving. Cursing and moaning, they lurched to their feet and stumbled down the stairs at the shrine's entrance, followed by InuYasha who retained his tight hold on Yoshimi.

The villagers gathered around the pack train to watch as InuYasha supervised their departure preparations. The drovers stared with large frightened eyes as the twenty battered and now unarmed soldiers heaved themselves shakily onto their horses.

"Listen up, assholes! Your job is to take your taxes and leave. If you do anything else, you'll be feeling my claws. Is everyone clear on that?"

A ragged chorus of unhappy yeses followed that announcement.

"Good. Now..."

"Papa!"

A small black-haired figure popped out of the crowd and ran up to hug InuYasha's leg and grin up at him.

"Toushi, sweetheart, now is not a good time," he said firmly, looking down at the happy little face and wondering how the hell he was going to safely get rid of her.

"There you are!" To his great relief, Kagome worked her way out of the crowd and darted over to scoop up the toddler and pull her out of the way. "Sorry, she got away from me," she called from the sidelines as the child screamed her protest at being plucked away.

Yoshimi twisted his head to look at the woman and the child as InuYasha slung him onto his horse and got on behind him. He saw a young woman, on the small side and dressed like a miko, for all that she was carrying the child like she was the mother. She had a trim figure and a very pretty face, despite having it scrunched up in response to the baby's howls. The baby, on closer examination, definitely belonged to the man, or youkai or whatever he was, behind him. She had the same golden eyes and dog's ears as he did. He wondered what kind of deal this village had cut with this youkai, giving him a lovely young miko as a mate in exchange for his protection.

"Take her home," InuYasha ordered behind him, then added, "I don't expect to be back soon. I'm going to escort them safely past the borders."

"I'll be waiting. Don't dawdle," the woman replied, as though expecting a full report when he returned. She didn't sound like a woman sacrificed to a beast in exchange for his cooperation.

"You heard the lady," InuYasha cried, "Let's get this train moving!"

Now Yoshimi wondered who owned whom. Had the miko captured this youkai with her powers and was she holding him in the village's service? If so, then how did the child fit in?

He had little else to think about as the pack train turned toward home, with InuYasha running escort around it as it traveled. Any notions he might have entertained about outrunning him or breaking a few men free to cause trouble were soon dashed as it became apparent InuYasha could easily outrun any of them despite their horses. Instead, he spent his time in the saddle composing his report for his lord.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Both Kagome and Miroku, for unrelated reasons, waited anxiously for InuYasha to return from guiding the tax collectors out of the area. They spent two fitful nights waiting, then, as dawn broke on a briskly cold morning spangled with frost, InuYasha reappeared from the forest. Miroku saw him as he walked across the field from the forest edge to his house and went in, then the priest hastened up the stairs to talk to him.

As Miroku approached the door, he could see through a slight gap in the door mat that Kagome was already up, cutting fruit for breakfast. Her back was to the door, and InuYasha had just stepped in behind her to greet her and give her a nuzzle on the neck.

"EEEP!" she gasped suddenly, dropping the knife and cringing away from him.

"Whaat!" he asked, nettled at her response to his greeting.

"Do you have any idea how cold your nose is?!" she demanded.

"Oh." InuYasha touched it as Miroku bit his lip to keep from laughing. "Is it really that bad?"

Yes, it's that bad, even if it's a dog nose." Kagome replied.

Miroku cleared his throat and knocked to announce his presence. Entertaining though this was, it wasn't settling any of his worries.

InuYasha stepped away to approach the door. "Miroku!"

"Oh.. Um.. I was just working on breakfast if you..." said Kagome at the announcement.

"Don't let me stop you," Miroku said smoothly as he entered the room. "But I want to talk to you two at your earliest convenience."

"Come on in," Kagome urged, "Would you like some tea while we talk? I can listen while I work."

Miroku accepted a mug of tea and sipped it meditatively while he thought. Turning the mug around in his hands, he remarked, "We'll have trouble soon, after that fiasco with the tax collector."

InuYasha bridled at the implied criticism. "Well, I couldn't exactly let him gut the council, now could I?"

"Of course not. I never said you should. But we still need to plan for the repercussions. Sumio now has the excuse he needs to move in here in force."

"How bad do you think it will be?" Kagome asked.

Miroku sighed and looked into his mug. "It'll be bad. We have essentially shown ourselves to be independent, no longer cowering under the Hojo yoke. Sumio is going to make a point of establishing his authority, whatever it takes. We'll have an army here as soon as he can arrange it and he will do his best to kill InuYasha and raze the villages, not necessarily in that order."

InuYasha stared into the fire in the hearth and considered the situation. His equipment was designed to protect humans from youkai. He really had not pushed its limits to find where it drew the subtle line of killing humans to protect other humans. He, himself, was loathe to embark on a campaign of wholesale slaughter, even assuming his sword would agree to play it that way. And even if he was up for getting into a killing field, he was just one hanyou against hundreds, and possibly thousands, of men and horses, all armed and armored, all hardened and practiced in war. It was a very different scenario from his usual ration of traveling desperadoes who worked through bluffs and small, fast raids.

Still, even that wasn't the point. There was a reasonable chance he would survive, but enough of the army would still get around him to massacre the villagers. There was just no way he could keep track of that many men at a time.

He said as much to Miroku, who merely grunted his acknowledgment.

After several more minutes of thought, Miroku stirred slightly and said, "We need a bluff, or some sleight of hand. A trick to get him off our backs."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Shall we take a flight on Kirara today to see what we have to work with?"

Little useful information was revealed in the flight over the area of the two villages. They had long been defended from the world by merely their remoteness. Kaede's village was tucked into a narrow little mountain valley nearly lost between two high ridges. Its little river ran down one of the ridges, along the length of the valley, then passed out into the plain through a narrow gap in the mountains. A small path ran alongside the river, which served as the normal access to the valley. Another trail existed through the forest at the other end of the valley, a trail through the forest, which was only taken by the foolish or the exceptionally well-armed. InuYasha was by no means the only youkai haunting those woods.

Masahiro's village was not quite so lucky. Although far from most of the main roads, a well-traveled merchant's path ran through the village and the village's fields opened onto the great Edo plain. There was no hope of isolating it from harm.

Nevertheless, Miroku and InuYasha continued to talk over possibilities as they flew from ridge to mountain peak, examining the terrain.

"Well, if we can't keep them out, we need to keep them busy," Miroku remarked as he finally decided, after looking at the terrain from all possible angles, that defending it with anything less than another army was not going to work.

"Busy! Doing what?!" InuYasha demanded.

"Anything that doesn't involve burning, killing, raping and pillaging."

"You mean like wenching, gambling and drinking?" InuYasha asked sardonically. He knew how Miroku's mind worked.

Miroku sighed. "We don't have a large enough vice district to make that work, more's the pity."

"So, then, what do you have in mind?"

"Let's keep them so busy trying to catch you that they don't have time for anything else."

"Um, problem! There could be thousands of them and there's only one of me. How's this supposed to work?"

"First, we need to get the officers' attention by tweaking their nose. In the interest of maintaining face, they will commit any amount of troops to chasing you down. Since you're stronger and faster than any of them and since you know the terrain, you should be able to keep them chasing their tails for weeks. Start with something small and personal, so we can bleed off the troops in manageable chunks."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Stealing the general's favorite horse is always a good opening move."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

InuYasha had his doubts, but it worked far better than he thought it would. After stealing the horse and leading the troops sent after him into the forest then leaving them near the den of a hungry youkai, he followed that up with a night time raid where he stole one sword from each tent in the heart of the camp. The next night, he unleashed the windscar through the heart of the camp at midnight, tearing up the landscape. The troops were soon reduced to a state of superstitious hysteria, certain the kami were against them.

As they grew jumpier and jumpier, InuYasha and Miroku brought in Shippo to play some games with foxfire, making it look like wraiths were walking through the camp at night. Soon, despite anything the officers could do, the troops adamantly refused to continue toward the "haunted valleys". The first snows of the winter set in and Sumio's officers were forced to withdraw the army until the weather improved.

Through the quiet time of the winter, both sides fretted and planned what to do when the thaw reopened hostilities.

InuYasha and Miroku continued to work on their image of a dangerously enchanted land, greatly aided by Shippo, whose talents in illusions had taken a quantum leap as he entered puberty. Unfortunately, he still had control issues, which led to some truly spectacular misfires as he stretched his abilities. As spring approached, InuYasha, Miroku and Shippo nervously rehearsed their sleights of hand and watched the mountain passes for signs of activity.

After Sumio finished reshuffling his officers and their heads, he called a meeting in preparation for the next campaign. In this meeting he made it clear there was a new game plan and the current officers were expected to stick to it despite provocations.

"Last fall, that kid in the red suit played you for fools. The officers in charge lost sight of the objective and let him lead them all over the countryside.

"It won't happen again. This time, we keep him busy. And while we have him occupied, we are going to go in and take his woman and child from the inner village. This time, we'll have him dancing to our tune."

This time, Sumio himself went at the head of his forces.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The snow was now melting quickly, raising the level of the little river to near flood stage and sending it rushing through the valley and out the divide. The normal path into the valley was swamped by the river, blocking off normal traffic. InuYasha had gone over the ridge directly earlier in the day to confer with Masahiro, who had reported that the last train of merchants through the village had seen soldiers preparing a campaign at Sumio's castle. Rumors had it that the campaign was aimed their way. He had returned immediately to confer with Miroku and Shippo. They decided to set out to intercept the troops at dawn the next day. Right now, he was getting in a last night at home before what promised to be a lengthy stay away.

InuYasha's ear turned back again toward the children's corner in the main room, causing Kagome to run the brush over it inadvertently. He twitched it a few times to relieve the scratched feeling while she murmured, "Sorry, but if you'd just keep it still, that wouldn't happen."

He really didn't mind. There was still no sound from the corner, no shiftings or rustlings that suggested one of them was still awake. Kagome was just about done with his brushing his hair and he had plans for the evening.

When she got up to put away the brush and comb, he followed her. When she stopped at the dresser holding the box, he stroked his hands over her shoulders and down her arms as he nibbled gently up her neck to nuzzle her ear.

"Oh, it's like that, is it?" she asked softly as she closed the box.

"Mm-hmmm."

She nodded toward the children's corner.

"Dead quiet for over half an hour," he breathed in her ear.

"Oh, really," she whispered, turning around and kissing him, her tongue sliding smoothly along his, caressing it gently.

"Really." He loosened her robe and ran his claws oh-so-gently down her back and up her ribs, then drew circles over her breasts.

She shivered with pleasure and pulled in closer, giving him a long sensuous kiss while she trailed her fingers over the edges of his ears, tickling the fur lightly.

A short time later, they were snuggled comfortably under the covers, enjoying another sensuous, seductive kiss when something suddenly flopped across InuYasha's back and Tsuchiya's voice said, "Hi, Papa. Whatcha doin'?"

"Uhhhhmm..." InuYasha's brain froze. Great. Why did the wrong head always take control in these situations? The fact that, beneath him, Kagome was giggling so hard she could scarcely breathe was only making it worse.

"A little help here," he muttered in her ear, "or this is going nowhere fast."

She took a deep breath and tried the quash the laughter, but it was too late. Tsuchiya crawled up InuYasha's back to sit on his shoulders and peer down at his mother.

"What's so funny, Mama?"

"M'm'm'..."

InuYasha tried to take control of the situation. "Why aren't you in bed, young man?"

"It's boring." Tsuchiya flopped down with his arms around InuYasha's neck, looking from one parent to the other in hopes of a romp.

Tears were welling in Kagome's eyes as she twitched now and then, still trying to hold in the laughter.

"Aren't you going to take him back to bed?" she asked innocently.

InuYasha flushed. "I am not getting out of bed right now and you know damned well why!" he growled under his breath.

"Mmphphbbtt!" She lost it completely and was shaking again with a massive case of the giggles. Part of him was enjoying the sensation enormously, while at the rational end, he couldn't remember the last time he had been so frustrated.

"Kagome!"

She got a grip on herself, finally, and said, "Tsu-chan, I know we've talked about this before. Bedtime is bedtime and Papa and I need our sleep."

"But you're not sleeping," Tsuchiya observed.

"But we will be soon," she said, sliding out of bed, slipping on a robe and picking him up. "And right now, Papa is very tired and grumpy, so let's be a good boy and sleep when the rest of us do. Play time is when the sun is up, OK?"

"But I'm not tired!" Tsuchiya protested.

"Tell you what, let's get out one of the puzzles Grandma got you and see if you can put it together in the dark just by feel. After that, you go back to bed."

"Awwww."

"No arguments." She hugged him and got out one of the puzzles, laying it near the hearth out of sight of the bedroom, then returned to her room.

"How does he do that?" groaned InuYasha as she rejoined him in bed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The day had been pleasantly warm, though the marching through the muddy roads had been difficult. Sumio had called a halt about two hours before sundown to give the troops some time to construct a camp, find firewood and water and set the watches. To his satisfaction, the troops showed smooth discipline and had tents set up and campfires going before sunset. He stood watching as the sun slipped down behind the mountains to the west, feeling the early spring warmth vanish abruptly with the sun leaving an icy wind swirling through the camp.

The clouds to the west transitioned from golden, through apricot pink, to fiery red, then faded to a sullen purple as the last of the sunlight gave way to night. As he watched, the edges of the clouds started to glow with an eerie ice-blue light. The light flickered and darted through the clouds like lightening, but no thunder rumbled down to him and the lights never ceased their dance. After a time, the pattern of the lights picked up its pace, then a distant rumble started building up in the distance. The rumble grew louder and closer, then a loud rip of thunder exploded around the camp and lightening bolts flashed through, leaving behind deeply plowed crevices in a spreading fan pattern. Pots on fires tumbled across the ground, horses panicked, rearing and neighing, tents swayed and collapsed, men stumbled about, gathering weapons, putting out burning tents, pulling each other out of the crevices. While Sumio's servants righted his brazier and resettled the tent poles, Sumio inspected the horizon to the west, observing the afterglow of the blast.

"It looks like our boy has arrived." He turned to his aide-de-camp and instructed him to fetch Captain Fujio. Captain Fujio and his hunting party were soon dispatched to hotly pursue InuYasha.

At midnight, another party was dispatched, this one to quietly penetrate the inner village and retrieve, alive, a certain woman and child.

1


	31. Chapter 31 Abducted

Chapter 31 - Abducted

"Tsu-chan, please sit still," Kagome said as she dragged the brush through Tsuchiya's tangled mop.

"Why?" Tsuchiya bounced on the bench, swinging his legs.

"Because I'm trying to get your hair tied back."

Tsuchiya's hair had changed texture over the last few months. Instead of a fuzzy black nimbus that stuck up in all directions, it had changed to a coarse mane of black hair that was now forever hanging in his eyes and sporting an incredible collection of burrs and twigs.

"Why?" Tsuchiya squirmed and shifted as the brush dragged through his hair again, lifting his head to look at his mother as his bangs were swooped back into a bundle of hair she was trying to keep captured in her left hand.

"Because it's always tangled and loaded with weeds and seeds. I'm trying to keep it clean!" Kagome opened her hand to collect the next set of locks. Half of what she was holding escaped.

"Why?" Tsuchiya fidgeted some more, slouching and drumming his heels on the floor. Even more of the hair escaped. Kagome grabbed his shirt and jerked him upright.

"Because I'm tired of you looking like something the cat dragged in. Come on, sit still and let me finish!" Kagome quickly smoothed both hands all around Tsuchiya's head, capturing as much as she could into a lopsided bundle and tied it off quickly. About half of the hair fell away from the tie. She looked at him ruefully, then finally admitted he really didn't look any worse than the other three and four year old boys in the village. "Gaah! Oh well, close enough."

"Mama, can we have a cat?" Tsuchiya asked as Kagome caught Toushi and started to run the brush through her hair.

"NOOOooooo!" Toushi squealed, flailing, as the brush caught and skipped on the mats in her black fuzz.

"A cat! What on earth makes you think a cat would want to live with us?" Kagome exclaimed. "Come on, Toushi, cooperate!"

"No!" Toushi retorted, digging her claws into the bench and trying to pull free.

"Grandma has a cat," Tsuchiya remarked.

"Who runs and hides the minute we show up," Kagome reminded him.

"Kirara doesn't hide," Tsuchiya said.

"No, but Kirara is a youkai cat, and even she gets tired of you after a while."

Tsuchiya sighed, looking very dejected.

"Tsu-chan, we can certainly try. Just don't be surprised if the cat runs away and finds a quieter home."

Tsuchiya perked up. He was positive they could find a cat who would like them.

"All right," Kagome announced, "we're going to the forest for a while. Kaede-o-baa-chan is feeling a bit off and we think some spring greens will help. There should be some bracken growing near the creek by the well's meadow. Do you have to go potty, Toushi?"

"No-o..."

Kagome frowned. That didn't sound very definite. "Oh really. Well, come on. We're going to try anyway. You too, Tsuchiya."

"Why?"

"Because I said so!"

------------------------------------------

There were seldom problems in the forest during daylight hours, but that was no guarantee. Kagome had brought her bow and quiver along with a basket for the bracken and a small knife to cut the fiddleheads free.

The meadow was a web of tiny rivulets meandering through the clumps of newly green grass and sprouting wildflowers. Toushi wasted no time in finding a puddle to trip into. Kagome hauled her out, calmed her indignant crying and set her down to watch the butterflies swirling across the meadow. Tsuchiya was already trying his luck, hopping back and forth across the rivulets, from one soggy tussock to the next. Kagome watched him a moment, then turned toward the edge of the meadow to start looking for sprouting bracken.

"Whoa!" Ker-SPLASH! "Mama!"

Kagome turned to see Tsuchiya flat on his back in a rivulet. He was already sitting up when she got there to pull him, shivering, out of the icy water.

"Looks like we have that part over with," Kagome remarked as she stripped Tsuchiya's clothes off to wring them out. "Everyone is wet now. I didn't bring any spares, so you'll have to put them back on. We need to go farther up the hill. The bracken isn't growing down here where it's so wet. You can play some more in the meadow on the way back."

She picked up Toushi, handed the basket to Tsuchiya and led them back into the trees on the path that ran farther up the valley beside the creek.

The dappled sunlight filtered golden through the newly opened spring-green leaves; the air was soft and moist, with the scents of cold fresh water, last year's damp leaves and the pungency of herbs crushed by their feet as they passed. Something small skittered into the underbrush as they approached and birds chirped and squabbled cheerfully in the tree branches. Kagome took a deep breath of the air and just savored it for a moment before returning to her task. It was so nice just to be outside again.

A short walk farther up the trail, Kagome stopped at a small clearing and put Toushi down. If she remembered correctly, there was a patch of bracken that should be sprouting just about now through the hazelnut thicket on her right.

"All right, you two, I want you to stay here in this clearing. I'm going through the bushes to look for the bracken and I'll be back in just a few minutes. Do you understand?"

They nodded solemnly.

"Toushi, you stay near Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya, if you start something, so help me..."

They nodded solemnly again.

Kagome took the basket and worked her way through the hazels to the bracken clump beyond it. Ah, just as she remembered, a large clump of bracken, last year's fronds brown and dead, but with the young fiddleheads just pushing up underneath. She knelt down and started cutting fiddleheads.

Back in the clearing, Tsuchiya and Toushi found a snail eating a mushroom. They watched the strange creature glide over the stem of the mushroom, then climb to its cap, its antennae waving gently as it oozed along. Tsuchiya reached out a claw and gently touched it. It shrank back partially into its shell, then cautiously resumed its path when nothing further happened. Toushi reached out and touched it with her finger, then pulled back quickly, wrinkling her nose at the slimy feel. The snail vanished into its shell. Tsuchiya picked it up and turned it over and over, wondering where all that snail had gone.

While Tsuchiya was occupied with the snail, Toushi stood up, wiping her gummy finger on her overalls. She looked around the clearing, then turned around completely, suddenly aware that something was very wrong.

"Mama?"

A flock of birds burst suddenly from a tree farther down the trail. Toushi gasped and spun around to see two masked men gliding up the trail toward them. Tsuchiya dropped the snail and stared, startled, as the man in front drew out a net and the other man slipped off the trail to vanish in the bushes to the left.

"Mama!"

Kagome abandoned the basket and surged through the hazels to the clearing just as the first man threw his net. She caught it and whipped it away into the bushes, then swung the hand still holding the little knife in front of his face as he swept by, forcing him to jump to the side to avoid getting slashed.

"Run! To the well!" she yelled as she caught Toushi up by her suspenders and grabbed Tsuchiya's hand to drag him along. They bolted down the path for a short distance, then jerked to a halt as another man leapt out in front of them, swinging a sword. Kagome looked back behind her. The first man was back on his feet and charging them, followed by another man with a net. Kagome plunged directly into the woods, scrambling over fallen logs and stumbling in hidden holes, clenching her teeth as branches snatched at her and scratched her face. One of her pursuers caught her hair as she dodged around a tree and yanked her back.

"Leave my mama alone!" Tsuchiya yelled, leaping on the man and clawing great gouges in his legs and back. He let go and Kagome bolted again, followed by Tsuchiya. She gained some distance, then took cover in a grove of huge cedar trees, hiding behind the trunk of the biggest one as she strung her bow and slipped an arrow from her quiver. The man with the sword appeared across the clearing and she sent an arrow whistling into his shoulder. He dropped the sword and dove behind a large camellia bush. Kagome pulled another arrow from the quiver and looked around again. She couldn't see them, but she could hear at least three men fanning out, under cover, to surround her and the children.

"We need to move soon, or we'll be trapped," she muttered, "but which way is it to the well?" She had by now lost her sense of where she was.

Tsuchiya tugged her pants leg, then pointed off to the left. "It's that way."

Kagome looked down at him, surprised by the conviction in his voice.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

It was no worse than any other idea she had, and maybe he was even right. She had to do something. This worked as well as anything she could think of. She peered out around her tree trunk again and sent a pair of arrows into the bushes where she could hear movement. A bitten off curse after the second arrow told her she had scored another hit.

Let's go," she whispered, selecting another arrow to hold ready against the bow with one hand and taking Toushi's hand in her other, "very quiet now, shhhh." Cautiously, they slipped out of the back of the grove, then moved in a wide circle, gliding from tree to thicket to grove, keeping to the shadows. The sounds of their pursuers moved around to their right.

"Which way now?" she whispered to Tsuchiya. He pointed again, now at an angle more to the right. She nodded and looked for a path.

Toushi whimpered softly and looked behind them. She pointed to a grove and said, "Bad men in trees."

That was much closer than Kagome liked. Just how many of them were there? She looked again in the direction she needed to go. Once again, she led the way, sliding through a grove of pine trees, along a long hedge of young wild plums, then they were at the edge of the meadow. There was a wide space to cross before they could reach the well.

Kagome stared across the meadow to the well, dithering. Should they take their chances and run, or would it be better to work their way around the edge of the meadow to line up for a shorter sprint?

"There! In the plum thicket!"

That decided it. Kagome snatched up Toushi and gasped, "Run! To the well! Run!" as she, herself, bolted across the grass slipping on the tussocks and splashing in the rivulets. Tsuchiya bolted ahead of her, reaching the well first, then turned to make sure Kagome was with him.

"No! Jump in!" she yelled, floundering in a deep spot as Tsuchiya ran back to join her.

Five men had burst from various locations around the edge of the meadow and were closing on them quickly. Kagome scrambled out of the bog and stumbled again toward the well, snatching Tsuchiya and jerking him around with her as she ran.

Three of the men converged on her as she reached the well and threw Tsuchiya and Toushi in. They snatched her back before she could tumble in after the children, lifting her off her feet and binding her in a net as she thrashed wildly, trying to fight free. She was soon gagged and wrapped up as tightly as a hapless fly in a spider's web. Her captors dumped her on the ground near the well while two of them jumped into the well to retrieve the children.

"They're not here!" they reported back a moment later.

"Don't be ridiculous," their captain called back. "I saw her toss them in."

"I don't know what you saw, but they're not here! It's totally empty, except for these vines. No hole, no cave, no door, no nothing."

The captain leaned over the well for his own look, then crouched down and slapped Kagome before pulling off the gag. "All right, witch, where are they?"

"Completely beyond your reach on a path you cannot follow," she snapped back defiantly. He slapped her again, punishment for having humiliated him. One little woman with two small children should not have been able to wreak so much havoc and then actually almost escape.

Standing, he snarled, "Pack her up. Our lord will have to be content with just the woman."

------------------------------------------

Tsuchiya landed in an awkward sprawl at the bottom of the well, Toushi landing half across him a moment later. While Toushi wailed out her forlorn terror, Tsuchiya looked around waiting for Kagome to join them. As time stretched on and still she didn't come, Tsuchiya got very frightened. He needed to get help for Mama.

He laboriously climbed the ladder to the top of the well and climbed out into the wellhouse, dragged its door open and ran to his grandmother's house.

The bewildered Higurashis listened to Tsuchiya's story, then followed him as he dragged Sota by the hand to jump through the well and help his mama.

"Tsu-chan, the well doesn't work for us," Sota explained unhappily as he looked down the well at Toushi, still screaming within. He vaulted over and landed at the bottom, then handed Toushi up before climbing back out.

"See?" he said to Tsuchiya, "I jump in and stay right here. We're just going to have to stay here and wait for your papa to come."

"But...but..."

"There's nothing we can do. I'm so sorry, Tsuchiya." Sota picked him up and brought him back to the house followed by Grandma who was still holding Toushi.

The Higurashis tried to get the children calmed and settled, despite anxiously looking out to check the wellhouse themselves at every opportunity. Toushi eventually collapsed, exhausted, into a deep sleep in the mid-afternoon, but Tsuchiya continued to fret, leaning close to his grandmother and listlessly poking at a stuffed toy all afternoon long. He picked at his dinner, sat distractedly through his bath, then curled miserably under the covers when Grandma took him to bed. He lay in the darkness for a long time, watching through the window as the moon crossed the sky. All the while, only one thought echoed through his head: Mama needed help and he was the only one who could go back and look for her.

In the small hours of the morning, Tsuchiya slid out of bed, wandered down the stairs and went out the back door to the grounds of the shrine. Moonlight from the setting moon cast the courtyard in bright silver broken by the black shadows cast by the buildings and the trees. He stood for a time, looking at the little wellhouse, wondering where Mama was. If she couldn't come here, he would have to go there. He pushed open the door to the wellhouse, climbed down the stairs to the well and looked in. Maybe... No, there was still no sign of his mother. He climbed onto the wall of the well, dangled his feet over for a moment, then pushed off.

The air was colder when he landed and when he looked up, he could see stars overhead. The vine that grew out of the well in his time was there and he used it to pull himself out of the well and into the meadow.

In this time, the moon was rising. Moonlight bathed the meadow, bright and silver; the soft sighing of a breeze through the forest trees only accentuated the silence. Tsuchiya found the place where his mother had been wrestled down; her bow and quiver had been tossed off to the side of the heavily trampled spot. Tsuchiya sniffed around the area, but his inexperienced nose soon lost the trail.

At a loss for what to do next, he followed the familiar trail back to his home. No one was there; no one had been there. Mama had not come here either. He found his toy monkey in the corner where he slept and huddled down, hugging it miserably. The everyday scents of his home only made his loss more acute. There were subtle reminders of Mama and Papa, Toushi and Shippo, everywhere. After a while, he wandered into his parents' bedroom, where the mingled scents of Mama and Papa were strongest. The comforter of their bed was permeated with them; he pulled it out and curled up on it with his monkey, breathing in the smells of love and peace while tears trickled down his cheeks in the darkness.

"Mama..."

------------------------------------------

At dawn, Kaede looked up the hill to InuYasha's house, searching for signs of life. She had expected to see Kagome yesterday afternoon, but as the afternoon passed and night fell, she still had not seen any activity at the house. No lanterns lit the windows, no smoke came from the smoke hole. By now, she should have heard the yells of the first fight between the children, but still there was nothing.

Deeply concerned, she climbed the steps up the hill and approached the house.

"Kagome-chan?" she asked, as she approached the door. "Are you within?"

She heard a soft rustling and someone sniffled, then it was quiet again.

"Who's in there?" she asked sharply as alarm surged through her. It was far too quiet here.

Tsuchiya wandered out of his parents' bedroom, trailing his monkey behind him. There were great dark circles ringing his teary eyes and his ears drooped dejectedly as he stood by the hearth, sniffling again.

"Tsuchiya! What is this? Are you all alone?" Kaede asked as she stepped quickly into the house.

He nodded and threw himself into her arms. It took Kaede a long time to make sense of the incoherent tale sobbed onto her shoulder, but finally she had the important points straight.

"Tsu-chan, your grandmother must be frantic with worry, wondering where you are. You really should go back," Kaede urged him.

He clung to her tighter, rejecting the suggestion. "Mama's here."

"Tsu-chan, please," Kaede pleaded, stroking his hair and hugging him again. "We know now, you've done your job. We'll let your father know and we'll start looking. But while we're looking, it would be best if you were safe with your grandmother."

"No..." Tsuchiya left no doubt that he would have nothing to do with that plan.

Kaede relented unhappily. She could easily make him go through the well, but she could not make him stay there. There was no telling when he would come back, or what would meet him when he did. It was better for him to stay with her here where she could keep an eye on him.

1


	32. Chapter 32 Through the Forest

Chapter 32 - A Passage Through the Forest

Kagome was slung over a horse in front of the captain for the retreat from the village. The raiding party had one other horse, which was currently carrying two of the wounded men, the one Tsuchiya had clawed and one which Kagome had shot in the flank through the bushes. The man with the shoulder wound remained on foot. There were a total of ten men in the party, all masked and dressed in a charcoal gray that melted into the shadows when they moved through the forest. They were traveling light, there were only water gourds and packets of field rations for food, only cloaks for bedding. They remained masked, with just their eyes peering out over cloths wrapped around their faces, and they seldom spoke, just when needed to give instructions or coordinate their actions. Nothing was said which could reveal any details about who they were, where they came from or what they were thinking. 

When all of them were assembled and had bundled their weapons and packs onto their backs, the captain said, "All right, we need to put some distance between us and the village. It won't be long before they notice her missing."

To Kagome's alarm, the path they took headed into the heart of the forest. At the pace they were going, there was no way they were going to clear the pass before nightfall. They were going to spend the night here, under the trees, with men wounded and bleeding. They were going to be lucky to survive.

As evening descended, the captain chose a clearing near the creek to stop for the night. The men unpacked food and cloaks; one of them tended to the wounds of this brethren, cleaning the wounds and putting on fresh dressings.

When the captain pulled the gag from Kagome's mouth to give her water, she hissed, "You'd better light a fire if you hope to make it through the night."

"Are you mad?" he snapped back. "A fire would alert any passersby to our presence."

"Are you mad?" Kagome retorted. "Do you know where you are? Every blood-feeding youkai in the forest knows you're here by now. They'll be coming soon, as soon as the last light leaves the mountain peaks. If you don't have a fire, and soon, nothing will stop them."

The captain looked around at the surrounding trees, growing black in the twilight, and at the skittish men around him who were listening in. Their nervous eyes darted back and forth from the trees to the woman.

"Nice try," he said drily. "There will be no fire. We didn't find any youkai coming in and we aren't going to see any now. So shut up and stop trying to spook my men."

"Fool!" Kagome snapped. "They don't come out for hangnails, but you have three badly wounded men now. You must light a fire and stay close to it."

"No more of your nonsense, woman!"

"Sir, what if she's right?" asked the man tending the wounded. "She know magic. I mean, where did those kids go if she doesn't know magic? And she's supposed to be that dog-man's mate, so she must know stuff about youkai. Who knows? She might even really be a miko."

The captain snorted. "She's also doing everything she can to get free of us. All she can do is talk. She tells a couple of stories, plays with our heads, we light the damned fire and someone sees it and that's the end of the story. No fire.

"And you," he continued pointing testily at Kagome, "any more out of you and the gag goes back on without any food."

Kagome nodded and took her food into her bound hands, nibbling on it as she opened her mystic senses wide, searching for the youkai she knew were coming. It wasn't long before the first hungry aura arrived to hover overhead then wind through the branches of the trees. Another soon appeared, drifting in lazy circles overhead until it, too, descended to the trees. A third slithered in under the bushes and paused, sniffing tentatively, at the edge of the clearing before it skirted around the open space toward the man who had caught the arrow in the gut.

The horses could sense them too; horses knew when predators were around. They shifted and stamped, ears flicking in all directions and heads raised to sniff the air.

Kagome couldn't see the youkai directly; they still had not fully transitioned into the physical world. Right now, they were still just eddies of hunger flickering at edges of her vision, softly glowing in a lurid red like the blood they craved. They would wait a while longer for their quarries' watchfulness to relax before they formed the sharp teeth that would rend the wounds and the greedy tongues that would lap up the blood. Later, as they gained strength, they would lose themselves in an ecstatic feeding frenzy, attacking all nearby living things, even the whole and hearty.

Still they came, drifting in on the wind and emerging from the underbrush until the clearing was ringed with hunger. The wild-eyed horses shied and danced, pulling at their tethers and whinnying their unease.

Kagome knew her best chance of survival lay in convincing her captors that the youkai were truly there. If they could be driven off before they entered their frenzy, the group might make it through the night. Unfortunately, timing was of the essence; she needed to wait until at least one of them had materialized before sounding the alarm.

Another youkai fluttered down from the trees to hover over the man with the shoulder wound. Three of them circled the man Tsuchiya had scratched, passing in swoops close to the gouges on his back and thighs, sniffing the scent of fresh blood and glowing brighter with each pass.

Glowing green eyes and a maw lined with a triple row of teeth flashed into existence, attached to a velvety black snakelike body that writhed and undulated toward the man's back. The next two youkai joined their compatriot in the material world, then lunged and snapped at each other briefly before descending on his legs. He gasped as they locked on, then moaned faintly.

"They're here!" Kagome announced as the next two wounded men were attacked. "Guard the wounded!"

The captain strode to her and kicked her sharply. "I thought I told you to shut your trap!"

The gut-shot man screamed as a youkai attacked his wound, then burrowed into his belly, seeking his blood-rich liver.

"Get it off! Get it out!" he screamed. "Oh gods, noooo!"

The horses reared and kicked, yanking loose their tethers, then bolted into the woods.

"Cut me loose!" Kagome demanded. "I can't expel them bound."

"Not a chance!" the captain retorted. "I'm not chasing you down again."

The rest of the men floundered in the darkness, trying to slash the nearly invisible youkai that slithered around them easily, eels in the air that slipped around a swinging weapon with a flick of a tail to close on the man behind it.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably then hissed in a soft breath as a youkai drifted past her, checking her over. 

The youkai did a lazy U turn and passed by Kagome again, closer this time. Another turn and a third pass, this time the youkai was close enough for Kagome to feel the slippery electric tingle of its aura brush against her. She gathered in her own powers, waiting for the attack. The youkai circled wide, then surged at her, maw wide to lock on her neck.

Kagome raised her arms before her face then swung out at the youkai as it closed, releasing a bright white blast that vaporized the youkai's aura into a cloud of jumbled mists. The other youkai circling close to her skittered away to the edge of the clearing to watch warily from the trees; the youkai who were already feeding elsewhere ignored her in their single-minded gluttony.

"Hey! She's a real miko!" someone yelped. 

The frightened men stampeded around her; she was hauled to her feet and thrust at the scratched man. The cluster of youkai around him regarded her with savage eyes, then chose to attack her for interfering with their feeding. All three of them broke free at once and charged her, mouths wide and snapping. 

She batted two away but the third lodged on her forearm as she swung at it. She snapped her arm, whipping it eel-like body into her right hand, then released another surge of spiritual power which blew it apart. Excited by the scent of her blood, the other two descended on her, chittering, to blow apart as they brushed against her hands.

Someone cut the ropes on her wrists and legs as the flock of youkai circled like darting swallows, growing increasingly bold as it became apparent they would need to fight for their meal.

"Miko-sama, give us protection!" cried a man who dropped before her feet into an abject crouching bow.

"I need a bow and a full quiver," Kagome ordered. Almost immediately, they were thrust into her hands. Kagome drew on one of the youkai diving through the clearing and blew it away. A second, third and fourth followed in quick order.

Chittering angrily, the remaining members of the flock changed their tactics and swooped down on five men, snatched them up and bolted into the forest with them. Kagome felled two more as they vanished into the trees, then ran out of arrows. Everyone scrambled quickly around the clearing for spent arrows as the agonized cries of taken men faded into the night.

Quiver reloaded, Kagome stood panting, an arrow nocked in the bow, as she extended her senses out as far as she could reach.

"They're gone," she said finally as the normal night sounds of chirping tree frogs and rustling leaves resumed.

The remaining five men stayed clustered around Kagome anyway, loathe to step far from the circle of her protection. The long night finally wore away; the cold light of dawn found Kagome swaying with exhaustion as the men roused to life again.

The captain gently pulled the bow from her hand and the quiver from her back.

"Miko-sama," he said diffidently, "forgive me, but I must rebind you."

"Take me home," Kagome demanded. "You owe me your lives; I ask only for my freedom."

He bowed before her, very low to show the depth of his regret.

"Such a small thing, yes, but it is the one thing I cannot grant."

"Why not?" she persisted. "Come back with me, I will give you my protection."

He shook a regretful head. "There is no hole deep enough to hide us from Sumio-sama's ire should we fail to produce you. My regrets, Miko-sama. May the gods be merciful to us all."

The men found the horses several hundred yards up the trail, caught by their traces which had tangled in the underbrush. They were skittish and difficult to handle, but otherwise unhurt. Only the man with the shoulder wound remained of the injured men. They placed him on one of the horses and Kagome on the other.

The captain bound her, but in all other ways he treated her like a queen; where before he had roughly restrained her on the horse, now he only steadied her when she swayed. He gave his coat when she became chilled, he served her food himself, piled bracken to cushion her when she rested. But he would not let her go.

Two days later, they entered Sumio's camp and worked their way through the tents of the common soldiers to enter the enclosure of the officers, four men on foot walking like an honor guard around a pair of horses, the captain rode one and led the other which bore the small figure of the miko. She might as well have been the wife of the emperor, Hojo Ujiyasu's own daughters commanded less respect.

Sumio stepped out from a meeting with his officers to greet his task force, a short stocky man dressed in a samurai's armor, which made his barrel chest and heavy shoulders all the more imposing. His unfathomable black eyes took in the tableau of these hard men arrayed protectively around the woman they had been sent to abduct then looked up at the woman herself sitting on the horse, her wrists lightly bound before her. She was dirty and disheveled, her hair escaping from its tie at the nape of her neck, but even so, she retained her dignity and shone slightly with a luminous beauty. She looked directly into his eyes, reading him boldly. No one had trained womanly diffidence into this one. She unsettled him, and he found that exciting.

"Only the woman?" he demanded of the captain, tearing his attention away from the woman.

"Yes, and you're fortunate to have her," the captain replied gruffly. "She spirited the children away somehow. I lost half my men in a youkai attack on the way back, but she saved the rest of us. Do not toy with her, my lord; she is a very powerful miko."

"Mmm," Sumio grunted noncommittally as he eyed Kagome speculatively.

"You may go," he told the captain as he continued to study Kagome.

The captain and his company withdrew quickly, relieved to have escaped unscathed. Once they were safely lost in their hidden camp, the captain breathed out an unhappy sigh as he stripped off his mask.

"Sumio had better watch his step this time," he remarked as he took a long drink from his gourd and passed it on. "I expect he'll find he's bitten off rather more than he can chew."

------------------------------------------

Somehow she had charmed them; that much was apparent. Sumio had thought the captain had a stronger mind than that. Ah, well, he thought, no matter. He had yet to meet the miko who could break him.

"Do you know why you are here?" he asked, watching her reaction.

"I expect you think you can use me to control InuYasha," she replied tartly. "It won't work."

"Won't it?" he pressed. "Most men become very cooperative when their families are held. Ah, but I forget; he is not a man. Beasts are not so careful of their mates."

She laughed (laughed!). "Oh, he's man enough," she said grimly. "He's man enough to tear apart anything and everything standing in his way when he comes to get me. You're going to regret this."

Temper stirred in Sumio's belly. This was not going as he had expected. The woman just sat there, gazing coolly at him, absolutely fearless, confident of her rescue. She should be weeping, pleading for mercy. How was he going to force InuYasha's hand when his children were safe and his woman behaved like this?

"You have a lot of presumption, thinking you can threaten me. You have one man against the full might of my army. I will enjoy dealing with your insolence."

Kagome's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "My insolence! You steal me from my home and accuse me of insolence! You'd better quit while you're ahead. Free me now and no one will get hurt. If InuYasha has to come for me, I can't promise anything."

No, this was not going as he had planned. He was never going to bring InuYasha to heel until he had reduced this woman to a cringing wreck. The first step was to remove all hope of escape.

"First he has to find you, doesn't he?" Sumio snapped. "That could take a while."

He summoned his personal servant. "Prepare me for travel. I shall be returning to the castle."

-----------------------------------------

Sango and Kirara flew over the mountains northeast of the village, then skimmed low over the treetops as she canvassed the area searching for InuYasha, Shippo and Miroku. This was the third day she had spent in this exercise; the forest was large and impenetrable and she had lost count of the gorges and ravines she had explored in the mountains as she sought them.

Today, the area was swarming with companies of soldiers. She caught glimpses of them as she flew over clearings, a flash of spears or a shower of arrows to dodge, then she would be gone. She must be getting close. She saw another ravine dead ahead where the forest melted away to a meadow with a river briskly running through it. A small troop of men on horseback and a larger company of foot soldiers with spears and bows were in the meadow forming up for an assault on the ravine.

As she approached, she heard a rumbling starting far back in the canyon, growing louder as it rushed toward the mouth, bouncing off the walls in a multiplying cacophony of booming echoes as it approached. Flickering comets of gold, green and red light tumbled out of the canyon along with a tornadic rush of wind.

"Up! Up!" Sango cried as the soldiers below her went tumbling across the meadow and the trees just below her whipped and tossed, snapping branches and flinging twigs and leaves into the air. Kirara banked sharply up and to the left to dodge the worst of the blast, then circled higher to cruise over the tops of the cliffs and penetrate the ravine. She had found them.

Kirara gained some altitude and flew directly over the gorge, following the gleaming track of the river while Sango looked back and forth to all the outcroppings and wide spots, seeking movement or any other sign she had found one of them. She rounded a bend and saw a flash of InuYasha's vivid red kimono just as he saw her and wound up for another strike with Tetsusaiga.

"Oh no! Up and out!" Sango gasped.

Kirara banked hard and shot over the top of the cliff just as the next blast roared behind her, the wind blowing her forward and pushing them hard into some thorn bushes just past the edge of the cliff. Scratched and battered, they clambered out of the grasping branches and were just starting to pull the most painful thorns out of clothes and fur when Miroku and Shippo flew in, Miroku with his staff raised for a preemptive blow. 

"Sango!" Miroku dropped the staff and Shippo landed them quickly on the far side of the thorn bushes. "What the Hell are you doing here? No one in your condition should even be thinking of leaving the village!"

InuYasha now appeared, having jumped up from his perch in the canyon below.

"Sango! Do you have any idea how close I came to blowing you away!" he yelled.

Sango grimaced and continued pulling thorns. Chain mail just wasn't up to this job; if anything, it was driving the thorns in deeper. She really wasn't looking forward to the lecture that was coming. She had only gotten the armor on in the first place with a great deal of tugging and cursing and her belly plate just barely protected the gap where her swelling belly poked through.

"Never mind that," she said briskly, "We've got other problems. Kagome-chan was kidnapped four days ago. The kidnappers took her back through the forest. I've been looking for you for days to let you know."

"Shit! They've been messing with us to get time to snatch her," Miroku swore viciously while InuYasha flinched then asked, "The kids?"

"Kagome-chan got them through the well just before they got her," Sango reported. "They're fine. Toushi-chan is still on the other side. Tsu-chan came back to tell us what happened and he's with Kaede-sama right now."

InuYasha sighed with relief at that, although a very dangerous look was beginning to flicker in his eyes.

Miroku had other concerns.

"All right, Sango, off with the armor," Miroku said firmly. 

"Houshi-sama!" she gasped, turning pale. Outside of the lightly padded lining, she had no room for clothes under the mail.

"I am not sending you home stuck with thorns like a pin cushion. They'll fester and then you'll really have a mess, so be a good girl and let us get them out."

"Us!" she cried, turning even paler, then blushing furiously.

"Yeah, what do you mean by 'us'?" a startled InuYasha added.

"All of us," Miroku insisted, "unless you want me working on her until nightfall. None of us wants to be delayed that long, so we're going to get you cleaned up as quickly as we can and send you back home where you belong."

"Houshi-sama, don't talk to me like that!" Sango snapped back. "You know as well as I do that I was the only one that could find you. I can take care of myself!"

"Of course you can," he agreed, grabbing her hand and unfastening the frogs on her shoulder and starting to peel the armor off her arm. She gasped as the mail slid off, dragging a pair of thorns out of her elbow and wrist. "Uh-huh, I thought so. You're not going anywhere until all the thorns are out."

Ignoring Sango's loud protests, Miroku stripped the rest of the armor off her and he and InuYasha carefully went over her, removing the remaining thorns while Shippo went over the armor itself, pulling more thorns and the occasional twig out of the links and padding. 

"Now, I'm going to take you home," Miroku said when Sango was finally permitted to get dressed.

"Hey! What about Kagome?" InuYasha demanded.

"I'll catch up with you," Miroku replied. "I want to make sure Sango gets home, check up on what's going on in the village and see if I can talk Tsuchiya into going back through the well where he's safe. I expect you'll find Kagome held in Sumio's castle, although you might just intercept them if you're fast enough."

"Yeah." It was true that Shippo and InuYasha could travel much faster without Miroku along. "I'll see you at the castle if we don't get lucky."

1


	33. Chapter 33 The Den of the Tiger

Chapter 33 - The Den of the Tiger

_Author's Note: This chapter elevates the story to a M rating, as it involves a fairly vicious rape half-way through the chapter._

Tempers were still running high when Sango and Miroku landed late in the afternoon on a trail beside the village's rice paddies. Sango had been forced to listen to a nonstop lecture about how foolhardy it was to take herself into what she knew was a war zone wearing armor that didn't fit due to her delicate condition. Miroku had well overrun what she considered his allowance for venting steam about the scare they had suffered and she was becoming increasingly irked that he absolutely refused to listen to her very valid points about why she had to be the one to come.

Kirara, by now, had had her fill of both of them. She unceremoniously dumped both of them on the ground as soon as she landed then took refuge high in the branches of a cedar tree and glared balefully down at them in her small cat form, tails lashing.

"See if you get the fish head tonight!" Sango retorted to her cat as she stood back up, rubbing her tailbone.

Kirara growled back and sniffed.

Miroku still had not run down. "If you ever go out like this again..."

"Will you give it a rest already?!" Sango snapped. "We're back; no one's hurt; it's over!"

Miroku ground his teeth and tried to sound reasonable. "Sango, you're a mother now. You have three daughters and perhaps my son on the way..."

"Daughter."

Miroku blinked. "Daughter? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Sango confirmed sheepishly. "I asked."

Miroku swallowed it down, then cocked a quizzical eye at Sango. "What is it with you and girls, anyway?"

Sango bristled up immediately. "What makes you think it's me?"

"Well, uh, all the action happens on your side."

"I gotta work with what I'm given!"

"Daddy!" Further discussions were deferred as Hisui and Shinzu ran across the levees from Saito's fish ponds to greet them, jumping on their father in an exuberant greeting.

"Have you been good for Ruri-san?" Sango asked as they wound around Miroku's legs.

"They've been fine," Ruri said, walking to join them holding Hato. Sango took Hato from Ruri's arms as Miroku asked her, "Where might I find Kaede-sama?"

Ruri laughed. "Right now, I'd say she's recovering from giving Tsu-chan a bath."

"Oh?"

Ruri's eyes danced as she related the story. "Tsu-chan took it into his head to go digging in the dung heap behind the stables this morning. He was pretty ripe when Eichi-san found him and returned him to Kaede-sama."

"Tell me again about how you want a boy," Sango said drolly.

"My son would not be part dog!" Miroku retorted.

"I'm not altogether certain being part dog has much to do with it," Ruri laughed. "He's just being Tsuchiya."

"Who is all boy," Sango chimed in.

"Never mind," Miroku grumbled. "I'll see you later."

He tracked down Kaede at her house, where he found her sitting by her fire with a cup of tea, still very damp from the exertions of bathing Tsuchiya. The boy himself was wrapped up in a knee-length kimono, his damp hair starting to fluff out in all directions as he hopped around the edge of the fire pit, swinging his toy monkey. He brightened expectantly when he saw Miroku.

"Miroku-sama! Did you bring Mama back? Is Papa with you?" He ran to the door and looked out hopefully.

"Not yet, Tsu-chan," Miroku replied. "Your father and Shippo are starting the search ahead of me. I came back to find out as much as I could about just how it happened, then I'll go back to help them."

"Oh." The dejected Tsuchiya plopped down on the floor beside Kaede and jugged his monkey tight.

"Tell me all about what happened when your Mama got lost." Miroku asked.

Tsuchiya's story had not improved markedly from the one he had told Kaede days earlier, but Miroku skillfully teased the details out of him. Now came the tricky part, persuading Tsuchiya to stay safely on the other side of the well.

"You can help me now," Miroku offered. "I have a big boy job for you."

Tsuchiya looked at him eagerly.

"I need someone to take a note through the well to your grandmother so she knows what's going on."

"Oh. Then I can come back?"

"If you wish."

"OK," Tsuchiya agreed. Since Kagome was the one person in the village with a ready supply of paper and pens, Tsuchiya accompanied Miroku up to his house and helped him look for paper, a brush and ink. Paper was soon found, but the house's writing implements consisted of a box of crayons, mostly broken, a handful of unsharpened pencils (the pencil sharpener evaded them), and a small collection of ball-point and felt-tipped pens. Half of the ball-points had failed and a couple of the felt-tips were sketchy, but finally Miroku settled on the one felt-tip that was working well.

Tsuchiya watched avidly as Miroku experimented with the pen, trying to get the feel of it. After a few minutes, he announced, "It's nothing like a brush, but I think I have it well enough.

Taking a fresh piece of paper, Miroku took a deep breath, then stared across the room thinking. He wrote a few columns, then signed the note at the bottom, folded the paper and tucked it into his robes, commenting, "At least we don't have to wait for the ink to dry. Let's go."

"What's it say?" Tsuchiya asked as he trotted along beside Miroku.

"I said we had the news that your mother is missing and that your father and Shippo are already trying to find the trail. We think a local warlord is behind it. We'll take care of you here if that's what you want. We'll send news when we have some."

"Wow." Tsuchiya looked at Miroku like he'd done something magic. "Can I learn how to write?"

"Of course," Miroku replied. "I know how, your mother knows how, all o f your relatives on the other side of the well know how. There's plenty of people who can teach you."

"Cool!" Tsuchiya hopped happily beside Miroku until they reached the well, dreaming about being able to write notes.

"All right my boy, up you go," Miroku said, lifting Tsuchiya onto the lip of the well. "Here's the note. I'll wait for you here."

Tsuchiya gripped the note tightly, then jumped in.

Miroku watched him go; about halfway down, the air in the well seemed to bend or twist in a sudden eddy as Tsuchiya dropped through; there was a strange shimmer and he was gone.

--

Grampa was inclined to believe the small figure that entered the back door was a ghost. It had been too long, Tsuchiya must have died and now he had come back to haunt them for not watching him better.

Mama collapsed into hysterics; once she had gotten over the worst of the shock, she subjected Tsuchiya to such an ordeal of severe scoldings intermixed with relieved hugs that the boy became so confused he wasn't sure if she was happy to see him or not.

Sota was the only person steady enough to notice the note clutched tightly in Tsuchiya's hand.

"What's this?" he asked, taking the note from Tsuchiya and opening it.

"It...It's a note from Miroku-sama," Tsuchiya explained, just before he got smothered by Mama's next hug.

The extreme novelty of getting a note from one of Kagome's mysterious friends from the far side of the well caught everyone's attention. Mama and Grampa hovered over Sota's shoulders as he laid the note on the table to read.

The writing was firm and graceful, with a hint of the sensuous in the curves of the pen-strokes.

_Unto the esteemed family of Higurashi, I, Miroku send my humble greetings._

_I have been traveling with InuYasha deep in the mountains. We have been working to turn back an invading warlord. We only received word of Kagome's abduction today. We suspect this warlord is behind it. _

_InuYasha and Shippo have already departed for his castle. I will be joining them after we have reached a mutual understanding of where we will keep Tsuchiya in the meantime. We, here, would prefer that he stay in your world as much as you, but I fear he has other opinions, and it will not be possible to force him to stay there. Given that, we have arranged for him to stay with my wife, Sango, for the duration._

_I propose a news exchange once a day near sunset when Tsuchiya may carry messages back and forth. We will be sure to pass on any news as soon as we have some._

_I await your answer._

_In the service of the Buddha, _

_Miroku_

"But, but, he can't go back," Mama wailed, devastated that Tsuchiya would be leaving her watchful eye again. "Tsu-chan, you have to stay here! This is where your mama expects to find you."

"Miroku-sama is waiting for me," Tsuchiya said stubbornly.

"Of course you need to take a note back," Mama persisted, "but then you should stay here."

"I don't know," Tsuchiya said, frowning.

"You can go back at sunset every day to find out the news," Sota reminded him. "They'll be waiting for you then with whatever they know."

Tsuchiya thought about it, torn between loyalties. He looked at the note again, and remembered his wish to know how it all worked. Miroku-sama said these people could show him, and, with both Miroku and his mother gone, he could only learn it here. "Can you show me how to write?" he asked.

Mama blinked, bewildered by the sudden change in topic. "Well, we can start to show you how. It takes a long time."

"Oh." Tsuchiya thought about it some more. He really did want to know how to puzzle out notes by himself. "OK. I'll stay here."

The Higurashis exchanged puzzled looks, but were not about to foul Tsuchiya's change of heart with any comments. Sota quickly wrote a note to Miroku explaining the decisions they had made, then sent Tsuchiya back through the well with the admonition to hurry back.

Miroku took the new note from Tsuchiya and read Sota's precise, angular writing with relief. Good, they'd talked the boy into staying there.

"All right, I'll set things up," he told Tsuchiya. "Someone will be here every day at sunset to tell you the news."

--

Sumio passed the day it took to return to his castle in closely observing his captive. She was a woman accustomed to being heeded, but she wielded her authority lightly, without arrogance. Almost unconsciously, the men he assigned to guard her fell under her spell, changing from haughty indifference to deference in the course of hours while she spoke with them.

Wishing to learn what sweet treasons she was suggesting, he rode in closer to the group. The men saw him coming and closed ranks around her, protective and sullen. She rode on, unaware, as she spoke to Akiharu, a samurai riding on her far side.

"I have found a wash of cool tea to be effective for that sort of eye ailment. If you do not have tea available, pluck some camellia leaves to make your wash."

"Miko-sama," Akiharu warned, looking over her shoulder.

She turned, her brilliant eyes piercing Sumio's with disapproval. "Do you not have a physician? All of your men are suffering from ill care."

"They get all they deserve," he said bluntly, studying her with the cold, unfathomable eyes of a hunting shark.

"Do they?" she asked, her eyes still locked on his. No fear, absolute confidence, yet her mien remained mild; what manner of woman was this? He had not known there could be such danger in gentleness.

"So, a miko, are you?" he queried, turning the discussion away from his suggested failings.

"You doubt it," she said softly.

"A miko does not bind herself to the demon-born unless she is practicing the dark arts, unless she seeks to pervert her gifts," he declared.

The guards around the woman bristled, muttering.

Her eyes flared angrily, then quieted to a rueful softness. "You wouldn't know. I'm keeping the soul of my love safe."

"Your 'love', that beast you have given yourself to, is a soulless youkai, little witch," Sumio jeered. "Perhaps this time you will choose to tell me the truth, that you are a twisted wanton who glories in the perversion of intimacy with the darkness."

Anger flared in her eyes again, this time remaining with a steady smoldering fire. "InuYasha has a man's soul, one which often walks on the edge of damnation. I am part of what keeps him sane. If anything happens to me, his youkai blood may slip its leash; if that happens, his retribution will be terrible. I have seen him consumed in the madness before and terrible things that happen then."

"More threats," Sumio scoffed. "Talk all you want, little witch. I'm not scared.

"Cut her loose of the horse," he ordered the guards. "From how on, she rides with me."

The guards hesitated, then complied. Sumio lifted Kagome free of the horse she rode and put her on the saddle in front of him.

"Now," he whispered in her ear, "you talk to me. Tell me all about you and your demon lover. He's a dog, isn't he? Tell me, does he lick you?" He licked her up the back of her neck to under her ear.

Kagome drew in a sharp hissing breath and began shaking, much to Sumio's satisfaction. So, she was learning fear.

"You have no right," she said in a low voice throbbing with fury. "You are not my husband."

"What's the matter, little witch?" Sumio purred, "You've gone so far as to couple with demons. Surely a real man could not distress you." He tightened his grip around her waist, then slipped a groping hand into her shirt and fondled her breast.

"No!" Kagome snapped, twisting away from his hand and leaning far to the side, nearly sliding off the horse.

Sumio yanked her back up by the hair, twisted her head around and planted his mouth hard on hers, thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth. He caught a brief glimpse of outraged eyes, then she bit down hard. He roared with pain and jerked back, spitting blood.

"You bitch!" he bellowed, striking her hard across the face. She reeled and he slugged her again. The horse danced wildly as she fell, dazed across its neck.

Three of the guards drew their swords to protect her. Sumio drew his own sword and lashed out twice. Two heads dropped to the ground, then Akiharu halted just out of Sumio's range as Kagome called, "No! Stop!"

She pulled herself back to a sitting position as Sumio and Akiharu locked eyes for a moment.

Akiharu asked, "Miko-sama?" At her nod and soft assurance ("I'm all right."), he sheathed his sword. Sumio waited a moment longer, then wiped and sheathed his own sword. He would remember who owned this man's loyalty, though.

When they reached the castle, Sumio turned to his insubordinate samurai and told him, "I will see you in the Pine Courtyard at the Hour of the Tiger."

Akiharu blanched, then silently bowed and led his horse to the stables.

Sumio then had Kagome dragged off to a locked room in the castle.

When the Hour of the Tiger arrived, Kagome was brought before Sumio in the Pine Courtyard and required to sit beside him. The courtyard was an austerely beautiful place, a garden featuring a carefully trimmed pine tree graced its center, surrounded by broad stone paving. There were two platforms at the head of the Courtyard, the one where Kagome sat with Sumio and another facing them, which held a cushion and a low table holding a knife. To one side of the courtyard, a small group of people stood, a haggard woman who looked worn past endurance, two frightened children and a dour old woman.

Once Kagome was settled, Sumio gestured to a gate on the far side of the courtyard. Akiharu entered, dressed all in white, followed by another samurai wearing a sword. Kagome gasped sharply as he entered, the blood draining from her head, leaving her feeling faint. This couldn't be happening. She took a firm grip on herself; it wouldn't do to show weakness, not here, not now.

The haggard woman, undoubtedly Akiharu's wife, whimpered faintly, then tears started coursing down her cheeks.

Akiharu paused momentarily at the gate, then walked across the courtyard to the platform, bowed, and settled himself before his lord.

Sumio gazed coldly at him for a time, then stated, "When you entered my service, you took an oath of absolute loyalty."

"Yes," Akiharu acknowledged.

"Today, you drew your sword on me to protect my enemy's woman."

"Yes."

Kagome bit her lip and forced herself to look at Akiharu, to let him see she truly wished his fate was different, to promise she would do all she could to protect his family.

The faintest rueful shake of his head told her the best he felt she could hope for was to protect herself.

"You have betrayed your oath to your lord."

"Yes." Fire returned to Akiharu's voice and he looked fiercely back into Sumio's eyes. "And I would do it again."

"So."

"So. I betrayed my oath and remained a samurai," Akiharu spat. Still holding Sumio's gaze, he disrobed to the waist, drew the knife and began the ritual cut of seppuku. Sumio watched coldly as Akiharu completed the cut and laid his head on the table, then signaled the second to strike the mercy cut that completed the ritual. Akiharu's wife was by now on the edge of collapse, only held upright by his grim mother.

Kagome, herself, was reeling. Nothing she had ever experienced had prepared her for this.

"So, little witch, now you have taken three lives," Sumio remarked.

Kagome rallied in outrage. "You force a man to choose between obeying his lord or remaining true to bushido and somehow this is my fault? I never once asked anyone to do anything for me."

"And yet, they choose to die in your service," he murmured. "I won't have that."

The cat-toying-with-a-mouse, tone was back in his voice. Kagome shuddered, wondering what he intended to do next. He was looking at her avidly, excited and hungry. Kagome looked back, swallowing hard, remembering how Sango had looked after she had escaped him.

After dismissing everyone in the courtyard, Sumio turned to Kagome and said, "Now, little witch, it's just you and me. You need not worry about anyone's honor being compromised by what passes between us. Let's finish our discussion about the relative merits of human and demon lovers."

Kagome drew back, away from his reaching hand, and tried to run, but flight was impossible. All the gates to the courtyard were now locked against her. He soon caught her, and despite her best efforts to beat him back and peel his hands loose, he bore her away to his private quarters, sealing the door behind him.

"So, I'm not your husband," he said, echoing her earlier protest. "Tell me, is this the first time you have been taken by a man? You must tell me how a true man compares to the beast you enjoy."

Kagome could not do anything. He had already learned to be wary of her teeth. He held her from behind in a choke hold, his left arm locked around her neck while his free hand undid her clothes, ran over her most intimate places. He rubbed himself against her naked skin and licked her neck and shoulder. Every time Kagome tried to kick or wrestle free, the choke hold tightened and her vision grew dark.

"That's better," he crooned as she stopped her fight in the interest of being allowed to continue breathing, "a woman should know her place."

He stroked her hair aside and nibbled up her neck, then loosed his own clothing. She gasped with revulsion as she felt him enter her, bit her lip to keep from sobbing as he took his pleasure, though the tears ran down her face. At last, he tightened his grip and released the seed of his lust in a final burst of brutal thrusts and withdrew.

Flushed and satisfied, Sumio resumed fondling Kagome lazily, trailing his hand up and down her torso, cupping her rump and fluffing her pubic hair. While she fought to keep from vomiting, he pulled her back against him and breathed in her ear, "Now you have had the privilege of knowing a true man. Surely, now that you know, you won't want to endure your beast any longer."

His hand wandered up her belly to circle her breast, then tweaked a nipple. "If you're good, I'll bring you back to enjoy some more. For now though..."

He rapped on the door and summoned a guard. Pushing Kagome out the door, he ordered, "Keep her secure with the other hostages."

Later, lost in the darkness of her dungeon cell, Kagome wept and told the shadows, "You have it so wrong. I have had the privilege of knowing a true man for years. This was the first time I have been forced to endure a beast.

"InuYasha, where are you?"

--

The barest crescent of a moon hung low to the East in the dawn sky when InuYasha and Shippo arrived on the outskirts of the castle town. The castle itself loomed dark against the morning light, a monstrous shadowed mountain in the middle of the town, built high on the artificial hill of a thirty-foot tall stone foundation and set apart from the town by moats and walls.

"Man, that thing's huge," exclaimed Shippo as he tried to take it all in.

"Yeah," InuYasha agreed. This wasn't going to be a quick grab and run operation to get Kagome like he'd been hoping. It could take hours just to get a trace of where to start looking, hours which he did not have.

They circled the castle, looking at it from all sides. Two massive gatehouses guarded the entrances, both well manned by grim-looking soldiers. The walls rose in tiers up the face of the castle, each tier manned by troops marching the ramparts while archers looked out from evenly spaced alcoves. There wasn't a door or window anywhere on the castle that could be approached surreptitiously, even by a youkai.

"Well, I can get in, but it won't be quiet," InuYasha said as they completed the circuit, "and getting out will be even messier."

Shippo looked at InuYasha nervously. Messy operations seldom slowed him down.

"InuYasha, you know what day it is," he reminded his friend.

"Yeah, I know," InuYasha said impatiently, still studying the castle.

"How long before your nose shuts down for the day?"

There was a long pause, then InuYasha said, "About midafternoon."

"Let's go in tomorrow," Shippo urged. "With luck, Miroku will have caught up with us by then. He knows where to look better than we do."

InuYasha's ear twitched dismissively while he continued to stare at the castle.

"InuYasha..."

"I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing!" InuYasha snapped.

"InuYasha, if you're still in there after sunset..."

"I know, I know!"

Shippo looked despairingly at him. There was absolutely no talking sense to InuYasha when it came to the new moon. He regularly got himself into trouble pushing his limits at those times. He tried anyway.

"Look, I'm a full youkai. I can go in and search for her without anyone knowing about it. If I find her in time, I'll come get you."

"Just what I need," InuYasha grumbled. "Two people to rescue."

"I'm not completely helpless!" Shippo snapped.

"Look, kid, all you can do is illusions."

Shippo made an impatient noise. "That's all I need. I'll come get you when I find her." With that, he assumed the appearance of a common alley cat and vanished around the corner of a shop to lose himself amid the building crowd of tradesmen starting their day's work.

"Shippo!" InuYasha yelled after him. "Get back here!" But Shippo was gone.

"Great," fumed InuYasha, "just great. It's bad enough I have to spring Kagome out of there, but now... That brat better be back soon."

He sat down at the base of a tree outside the stable they had chosen for a headquarters, very disgruntled and waited sulkily for Shippo's return.

By mid afternoon, with still no sign of Shippo, InuYasha decided he had waited long enough. He got up and stalked straight to the main gatehouse of the castle. When challenged by the guards, he grabbed the nearest man's shirt and snarled in his face, "Go tell your lord that InuYasha is here to collect his wife," then threw the man through the gate to hurry him along. Brushing off the blows of the remaining guards, he pushed his way through to the next circle's gate.

Here he faced two rows of soldiers, the first with spears pointed at him and the next wielding swords. The archers above the gate all had arrows nocked and ready.

He was mainly here to make an impression; knocking aside the spears, he charged through the rows of soldiers, sending them tumbling in all directions. The archers fired as he passed, to no effect.

By the next courtyard, it was clear that word of his arrival had made it to Sumio; opposition ceased and a path opened before him leading to an audience room shortly beyond the entrance hall in the first level of the keep.

Seated on a cushion on a raised platform, Sumio awaited him, surrounded by retainers. InuYasha strode into the room and planted himself halfway across, arms folded, glowering at Sumio. Behind him, soldiers closed ranks to block the exits.

The two men studied each other for a moment, then InuYasha announced, "I've come for my wife."

Sumio regarded him impassively. After all the trouble he had had, this was a letdown. He had been expecting something more impressive than this slender young man-boy. The figure before him was almost pretty, with the long mane of silvery white hair and the striking golden eyes. The most obvious sign of his otherworldly heritage were the dog's ears that were currently turned back against his head. The boy was obviously an impulsive hothead too, coming in armed with a battered old sword and no armor. He was sure he could handle this child easily.

"She is not available," he replied. "This may change if you are cooperative."

"Cooperative how?" InuYasha asked shortly.

"It's quite simple, really. You give up your opposition and swear allegiance to me. After that, I expect she will become available."

InuYasha stared at Sumio in disbelief. "Are you telling me I get to see my own wife when you decide I'm being a good doggy?"

"Crass, but that is essentially the idea. Of course, if you give me trouble instead, unfortunate things will happen to her. It's entirely up to you."

"Think again, asshole," InuYasha retorted. "What's going to happen is this: you're going to return Kagome unharmed, and I will then let you keep your castle. You have until dawn tomorrow. And just so we both know what's at stake, here's a little demonstration of what I can do."

InuYasha turned and strode to a pillar in the middle of the room and shattered it into kindling with a pulverizing punch. The beam it had supported groaned, then crashed to the floor, filling half the room with rubble. InuYasha faced Sumio through the swirling dust and jabbed a finger at him.

"Tomorrow at dawn," he repeated, then marched out as the soldiers near the door scrambled out of his way.

He left a ringing silence behind him as the shocked men in the room digested what had just happened. While the retainers and soldiers cast tentative glances at each other, Sumio surged into a towering rage. No one treated with Shimomura Sumio like that, especially not some cocksure little pretty-boy. There would be payment for the damage to his castle and his face. So the man-boy wanted his woman, did he? There could be no better place to strike back.

He rose and strode briskly from the room, followed by a skinny nondescript cat.

--

No one in the castle could have missed InuYasha's grand entrance. Cursing under his breath, Shippo abandoned his search and bolted to the audience room to crouch unheeded behind the legs of a pair of guards at the door.

"Typical, typical, typical" he thought savagely, "just blast your way in and let everyone know you're here. So much for finding Kagome on the sly."

He watched InuYasha and Sumio's exchange, then considered Sumio's hard, vengeful face as he left the room and decided to follow.

Sumio led Shippo deeper and deeper into the heart of the castle, down to a dank warren buried in the heart of the foundation that reeked of desperation and fear.

"Who? Who is it?" A man's hoarse voice called from a cell at the back of the dungeon block.

Eyes peered out through a crack in a nearby door.

"It's Sumio-sama," a woman replied. Gasps and moans greeted this announcement and people were heard pulling back from their doors. Sumio strode about two-thirds of the way down the hall then unbarred a door on the left and entered the cell. Shippo heard soft prayers whispered as he walked down the hall behind the light of Sumio's lamp.

People returned to the doors of their cells after Sumio had passed and called softly to one another.

"Where did he go?"

"Who does he want?"

"He's with the new one, the miko" the old man just across from Kagome's cell called.

Shippo heard a loud slap and Kagome's voice cry out, then Sumio snarled,

"Your dog-boy came looking for you today, little bitch. He could use some lessons in manners."

There was another heavy blow and a thud. Kagome cried out again.

"He thought he could tell me what to do," Sumio continued, dealing another vicious blow to Kagome. Shippo heard her slam against the wall, then slump down, gasping for air.

"He thought wrong, didn't he?"

Kagome fell silent under the rain of blows and kicks, but even then Sumio did not stop the beating. Finally, his rage purged, he gave her one last kick and departed.

Shippo melted into the shadows as Sumio left the dungeon, then dropped the cat illusion to concentrate his efforts on trying to open the door. Despite his best efforts at pushing and clawing, he was unable to move the bar.

"Kagome!" he called, "Kagome! It's me, Shippo! Can you hear me?"

"What's going on?" a prisoner called from down the hall. "Who's out there?"

Shippo fell silent, thinking desperately. Could he trust the other prisoners to keep quiet? If Sumio found out that someone knew where Kagome was, he would move her. He decided not to risk it. Slipping back into his cat disguise, he slunk back out of the dungeon, then worked his way back out of the castle. Night had fallen by the time he returned to the stable to find InuYasha in his human phase. Miroku was there too, having rejoined them while Shippo was in the castle.

"About time you showed up," InuYasha snapped at Shippo. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Finding Kagome, like I told you," Shippo replied.

"Did you find her? Is she all right?" Miroku asked quickly.

"Yeah, I found her and no, she is not all right, thanks to InuYasha," Shippo said grimly.

"Me?!"

"Yeah, you. If you'd just left it alone and let me find her, we could have gotten her out of the dungeon before Sumio knew we were here. But no, you had to go piss him off and he took it out on her, beat the hell out of her. I couldn't get the cell of her door open after I left and she didn't answer when I called."

"Shit!" InuYasha surged to his feet and gripped his sword close, prepared to storm the castle.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Miroku asked, grabbing the back of InuYasha's robe and hauling him back.

"I'm getting her out now," InuYasha declared stubbornly.

"What? You're still human. They'll cut you down at the first gate," Shippo retorted.

"But..."

"Both of you dead doesn't improve anything," lectured Miroku. "Now sit down and think this through. If Sumio kills Kagome, he loses any hold he has on you. That's the last thing he wants, so let's assume for now that she's alive. He's focussed on you; I'm not sure he even knows Shippo and I exist. Let's try to keep it that way. You keep to your plan, present yourself at the gate at dawn and make a big show out of demanding her. Shippo and I are going back in now. If we're not out by the time you're done dealing with Sumio, come in after us. Oh, and leave enough castle that we can climb back out."

A thoroughly surly InuYasha glowered at him. "Oh, right, it's too dangerous for me to go in, but you can just walk in no problem?"

Miroku sighed, resigned to InuYasha's grumpy temper. "I've broken into this castle before, and I have a lot more experience at this sort of thing than you," he explained patiently. "What you excel at is making noise, and the more uproar you can make at dawn, the better."

Still rebellious, InuYasha glared back at them, trying to come up with something better, something that would get him in the castle sooner. Miroku quietly stared him down, and eventually he gave up.

"Yeah, fine, go do it," he finally growled with very ill grace. He sat back down under the eaves of the stable and stared stolidly ahead, clearly sulking again.

Shippo and Miroku turned and left, Shippo resuming his alley cat disguise and Miroku's dark form swallowed by the shadows.

"Just make sure you get her, or I'm adding you to my list," he called after them.

"It's my damned wife," he muttered under his breath. "I'm the one who should be getting her out."

Kirara brushed up against him and jumped into his lap, purring what comfort she could.

Long nights were the norm for Inuyasha whenever the moon was new, but this was the longest one he had endured in years. When the first traces of dawn light appeared in the East, he began fidgeting. None of his curses or prayers made the sun rise any sooner. As the sky brightened, he started pacing. Kirara abandoned him to watch from a haystack in the corner. Finally, when the sky was silvery bright and golden clouds graced the eastern horizon, he felt it was time to move.

"Come on Kirara," he said, "It's show time."

Kirara jumped onto his shoulder as he headed into the street for the walk to the castle gate.

--

Shippo and Miroku took a circuitous route through the alleys to a secluded spot near the castle wall well away from any of the gates. A wide moat separated them from the wall itself, which loomed thirty feet over their heads. As they studied their access route, a pair of soldiers marched deliberately into view from opposite sides of the wall, met above them, then turned to retrace their steps.

"Looks impressive, eh?" Miroku muttered.

"They're pretty thorough," Shippo remarked.

"Yeah, well, they're still not expecting anyone to come in from the air. Those guards should be far enough away by now. Shall we?"

The dusky alley cat transformed into a dusky balloon which Miroku rode up and over the wall. They landed against the wall of the keep near a servants' entrance and Shippo resumed the appearance of a cat.

"What do you think?" Shippo asked as they examined the doorway.

"Mmm. Not as well guarded, but a greater chance of finding people inside working," Miroku judged.

"I'll go look." Shippo slunk along the wall and slipped into the door. A moment later, he ran back out, chased by a servant with a broom.

"And stay out! This is no place for cats!" the servant bellowed after him.

Shippo made a show of licking himself, then sauntered back to Miroku, tail held high.

"It's a kitchen," he reported. "Loaded with people. Even I couldn't get through."

"Let's move on," Miroku said, leading the way toward the main entrance to look it over. Outside of the guards, the area was deserted.

"That's more like it," said Miroku. "It's just guards."

"Don't you think that's enough?" Shippo asked.

"Nah, this is easy. They're all bored stupid and are only thinking of breakfast and a warm bed. We just need to give them something interesting to watch for a moment while I slip through."

"I could become a beautiful woman," Shippo suggested.

"Not that interesting!" Miroku snorted. "They'll remember that. We need something ordinary, but mildly diverting. Ummm, do you have a toy mouse in that collection in your pockets?"

"Uhh, yeah," Shippo said, slightly puzzled.

"Great," Miroku grinned. "You be a cat that just caught a mouse. Play with it for a while right there in the middle of the doorway, then join me when I've gone through."

Shippo's mouse was a little mechanical trinket Kagome had given him years before that wound up when rolled backwards then leapt forward when released. A very small amount of fox magic gave life to its movements. Shippo released it obliquely across the doorway, then scampered after it.

All of the guards turned to watch the only interesting thing that had happened all night. While Shippo batted and pounced on the mouse, Miroku slipped through behind the guards' backs and concealed himself in the shadows at the back of the room next to a door.

Shippo seized the mouse and trotted to a far corner to "eat" it. When the guards lost interest a few minutes later, he joined Miroku at the door. A quick check revealed a deserted hallway beyond.

"This way," Shippo whispered, then he guided Miroku down the hall and through a series of passages that led down into the bowels of the keep.

Miroku was forced to pick up a lamp as they approached the dungeon, torches were now widely spaced and feeble in the fetid air.

"Gods, what a hole!" Miroku whispered in disgust as he and Shippo approached the final bend.

"Shh. There's one more set of guards," Shippo warned.

Miroku put down the lamp and joined Shippo at the corner to see. There was just two of them standing stolidly at the entrance to a hallway, yawning in the darkness.

"Let's just take them out. No one will hear anything. You blind them with foxfire, then I'll just whack them."

Miroku turned aside and shielded his eyes just as a brilliant flash of blue light filled the hall.

"AAUGH! What the Hell?!"

The guards were still fumbling blindly when Miroku rounded the corner and laid about him with his staff. A moment later, both guards were out cold and Miroku was retrieving the lamp.

"We need to stash them someplace," Miroku told Shippo. "It wouldn't do to have them wake up at an inconvenient moment."

"Here's an empty cell," Shippo said a moment later.

"Who's there? What's going on?" A nearby prisoner called.

"Rescue party," Miroku announced as he shut the guards in the empty cell. It had occurred to him that a crowd of prisoners on the loose would just add to the diversions needed to get Kagome out.

"Rescue..."

"Rescue!"

All up and down the hall, people surged to their feet and pressed against the doors.

Miroku went to the first door and examined it in the lamplight, then felt over the latching mechanism.

"Ahh, that's how it works." With a clunk and a slide, the door opened and an emaciated man tumbled out. Miroku worked his way down the doors, unlatching them and freeing the prisoners. Wives with children, grandfathers and grandmothers, half-grown boys, they wandered out of their cells, all thin, some with half-healed wounds from beatings. Two cells held dead prisoners, in three more, the people were so wracked they could not move on their own. Finally, they reached the cell that held Kagome.

Kagome was sprawled on the floor, half-conscious, with her hair spread in a nimbus around her. Her face was covered with massive bruises, her ripped clothes revealed more bruises on her arms and legs. One leg was cocked at an ugly angle and her breathing was slow and harshly rasping.

"Kagome!" Shippo cried, "Oh no!"

"Ill be right back," Miroku said grimly, "I'm getting the rest of the doors open."

"I...Inu...Yasha?" Kagome said faintly as Shippo joined her.

"It's me and Miroku," Shippo told her. "InuYasha is outside. It's the new moon tonight. We're breaking you out at down."

Kagome started crying weakly as Miroku came back in the room.

"How...how long?" she asked.

"It's almost time," Miroku answered. He bent and started to gather her up. Kagome gasped in agony as he lifted.

"I'm sorry, but there's no other way," he said as he settled her on his back. "Let's get out of here."

Shippo led the way out, scouting each intersection as they advanced. The other prisoners trailed behind them, helping each other along. After a time, Shippo waved everyone to a halt. The passageway had become light enough that everyone could see without a lamp and the air was noticeably fresher. Many of the prisoners were looking much livelier that they had in the dungeon.

"We're getting to the traveled parts of the castle," Shippo reported. "From here on out, we could be seen at any time."

"How close are we to sunrise?" Miroku asked.

"Maybe half an hour," Shippo replied, "probably less."

"Scout us out a path to open air," Miroku said. "I want us out of the keep as soon as possible."

Shippo returned to his cat disguise and vanished down the hallway.

"Gather your strength," Miroku told the prisoners behind him. "We're going to be running for it in a few minutes."

--

InuYasha paused in an alley behind a basket shop to pass the last few minutes to sunrise. As the first beam of sunlight struck him and he felt his youkai power surge to life, he told Kirara, "Let's go knock this asshole down a few notches."

He made his way to the main gatehouse and stood before it. Folding his arms, he faced the gate and called," Time's up Sumio! What's it going to be? Kagome or the castle?"

A flight of arrows answered him. He raised an arm to shield his head with the fire rat robed, then drew his sword. "Kinda what I figured," he muttered, winding up and cutting loose with a wind scar.

--

The entire castle shook violently. Men yelled from the ramparts outside, then the sound of shouted orders and running men drifted down the hall.

"Hold steady," Miroku said softly, soothing the frightened prisoners. "Let's let him get the troops really stirred up."

"But we'll be buried!" a woman sobbed.

"Shippo?" Miroku asked.

"Not yet," Shippo reported as a large troop of men with spears quickstepped by in the outer hall. "There's still too many of them."

Another wind scar ripped through, tumbling portions of the outer wall and making the floor buck. The prisoners gasped and wailed as the beams overhead creaked and groaned.

Another large troop ran by, then Shippo called "Now!"

He transformed into a brightly glowing blue figure and led the stampeding prisoners out into the passage and around a series of twists and turns to an outer door. He threw a flare of foxfire into the faces of the startled guards, then everyone bolted through the doorway into a milling crowd of screaming servants and yelling samurai in the courtyard.

"Shippo! Get us out of here!" Miroku cried, catching up to him with the fainting Kagome in his arms. Shippo became a floating pink balloon, Miroku scrambled aboard, and they rose quickly into the air, out of range of arrows and wind scars.

It was hard to miss seeing Shippo as he rose out of the castle walls and sailed away from the keep.

"There they go!" InuYasha called to Kirara, pointing. "One more shot to keep these bastards busy, and we'll go meet them."

He wound up one more time and sent in a blow that breeched the second wall and shattered the keep's gate.

Kirara transformed to full size, then she and Inuyasha took to the air to catch up with Shippo.

1


	34. Chapter 34 Reforging a Soul

Chapter 34 - Reforging a Soul

Emma-O shimmered into existence on the small spit that held the plum tree favored by the River Woman. He found her sitting at the base of the tree facing away from the river with it's flowing, ever-changing playing field, fierce-eyed and stiff as she fought to retain her self-control.

"_Have you brought a replacement?_" she demanded abruptly.

The River Woman had been expecting Emma-O's lieutenant, the Gatekeeper, not Emma-O himself. So. They were taking her message seriously.

She warily watched him approach. Even among the kami, Emma-O was an impressive figure. The bristling white mustache and eyebrows nearly glowed against his midnight black skin and his carnelian eyes brought burning embers to mind. The ferocity of this appearance was offset by the elegance of his golden brocade kimono and his calm, reserved air. Emma-O had seen everything, taken in all the best and worst the world could possibly offer and rendered judgment on it all. A simple river goddess would not stand a chance against his displeasure.

He walked to stand beside her, looking beyond the trunk of the plum tree to view the smoking ruin that dominated the near portion of the playing field in the river.

"_I have miscalculated badly,_" the River Woman murmured. "_We are hunting a god, so I chose players who are powerful in the spiritual realms. I have found to my chagrin that they are, however, deeply limited in the simple human realm. I did not foresee this and failed to provide adequate protection._"

"_Mmm_." Emma-O continued to study the remains of the anchor. The miko's half was nearly demolished; only a bit of her luminous opalescent soul showed through the blackened pitting covering her section of the anchor. The hanyou's half, darkly glowing, was churning wildly, threatening to melt down the remains of the framework containing it and spill out across the field, scorching the field widely in its collapse.

"_I am not worthy to continue,_" the River Woman stated, her voice hollow with her desolation.

Emma-O shifted his attention to the woman seated at his feet. Still as lovely as ever, with the soft ripples playing across her kimono and her hair gently drifting in an unseen breeze. Yet the tears that should have been trailing down her cheeks were absent, and she herself seemed too light, faded and perhaps brittle.

"_My lady, you have tended the play of this game for how long now?_" Emma-O asked.

She looked up quizzically, wondering at his thoughts. "_It has been nigh on to six years._"

"_And have you ever once, in all this time, returned to your river?_"

"_No_," she admitted.

Emma-O sighed; he appreciated her dedication, but she was not doing herself or the endeavor any good by overextending herself. A nature spirit was tied to his or her carnal body, and could not leave that body indefinitely. Judging by the dryness of her soul, she was well overdue for a return to the river whose soul she was.

"_My lady, you must return to your river for a time. You are fading._"

Yes, she was becoming a dry shell, so fragile a touch could crush her. She couldn't think, could scarcely keep her eyes focussed. But still, she needed to hash this out...

"_You can't mean for me to come back. With all due respect, my lord, I am not fit for this duty._"

"_With all due respect, my lady, I know of no other who is more fit,_" he said gently. "_Until Ryuujin throws in with us, I cannot hope to replace you._"

"_But..._"

"_You are worn beyond endurance. We will talk again when you have revived._"

"_And what of the game? What of them?_" she asked quietly in the bitterness of her regret.

"_I will attend to them myself_."

So, she was dismissed, for now, but not relieved. She must return, and had to be content with it. The River Woman rose, bowed respectfully to Emma-O and shimmered away.

Emma-O bowed back to her departing form and looked after her thoughtfully for a while, then turned his full attention to the game.

He quickly decided he could not see enough of her strategy to continue movements in the main play. There were several transparent pieces laying in wait across the field; he had no idea what events would activate them nor the sequences ordering them. He could quickly put her subtle plans to waste through simple ignorance. The anchor, however, was another matter. The situation was, indeed, dire, but it was not as irrecoverable as the River Woman thought. Choosing the souls who would serve as instruments in the game was only the first step. Generally, the souls then needed to be tempered and honed. Emma-O dealt in souls, not currents, and he could see ways to reforge these souls to build greater strength and resilience. It would require the utmost delicacy and a certain steely ruthlessness, a fitting task for the Judge of Souls.

Emma-O knelt in the River Woman's accustomed place, cleared his mind and his heart, then opened a view into the anchor.

--

The rescue party had landed in a secluded clearing near a spring to examine the extent of Kagome's injuries in the daylight. InuYasha quickly laid out his kimono on the grass and Miroku placed her gently on it. Despite Miroku's best efforts, Kagome cried out in pain when moved and wept weakly at other times. Miroku recited off the injuries as he found and assessed them.

"Dislocated hip, broken arm, broken ribs, bruising on the arms and back, huge bump on the back of the head with a possible cracked skull. Her breathing and pulse are bad and her color is awful. I suspect internal bleeding."

During the recital, InuYasha's ears had drawn back tighter and tighter until they were laying flat against his head and his low growling had become a full out snarl. Miroku had never seen his eyes so hard, so full of hatred. It didn't stop there; anger, hatred, despair, all of these things could feed a vortex of youki. Generally, a man's soul had to reach out to Hell to touch that demonic power, but it resided, uneasily subdued, within InuYasha's core and was now breaking its bonds.

"InuYasha! NO!" Miroku shouted, "We can't afford that!"

InuYasha snarled back at him, teeth bared and eyes vacant.

Praying it would not be his last action on this world, Miroku slapped InuYasha hard across the face. "Snap out of it! We need you to take Kagome through the well. I can't do it, Shippo can't do it, it has to be you!"

"But that bastard..." InuYasha howled.

Words. InuYasha had words back. Miroku slapped him again.

"Forget Sumio! He'll still be here when you get back. We'll lose Kagome if you don't get her back to her world."

InuYasha stood shaking with the effort to control himself as his youkai stripes bloomed and faded on his face, back and forth as conflicting drives fought it out within him. His protective instinct won in the end; he gulped some air and asked in a quivering voice, "Are you telling me you can't do anything?"

"By this time tomorrow, I will be chanting the prayers for the dead," Miroku muttered softly, for InuYasha's ears only.

InuYasha's shaking built again, his eyes went once more vacant and the stripes returned for a moment, then he crushed the youki back down within himself. His eyes cleared and stabilized to a wounded, worried expression.

Miroku watched him warily for a moment. "Are you sure you're back?"

"Yeah, I've got it under control," InuYasha replied. "Let's get her out of here. But I'm promising you this, as soon as I get a chance, I'm going after that bastard with everything I've got."

The suppression of the youki upwelling had left InuYasha stunned and empty, but as he flew toward the well on Kirara's back with his desperately injured wife in his arms, a slow rage built in him, a rage that had nothing to do with temper. The youki stirred again, building strength in a powerful current that surged through him, a current controlled and directed by his soul that loosed his strength without robbing him of his mind.

--

The Spring Festival at the Higurashi Shrine was in full swing on a beautiful sunny afternoon. The shrine was gaily festooned with streamers and strings of paper cranes, the sweet scent of incense drifted by in puffs born by a soft breeze and half a dozen local girls who served part-time as mikos were dancing before the shrine to the music of drums and bamboo flutes. Grampa was preparing to lead the congregation in a procession that ended with the offerings to the kami of branches from the sacred tree tied with strips of white paper.

He was fussing about whether or not his hat was still on straight as Mama carefully arranged its ribbons and twitched the last of his ties into place. Sota was walking through the congregation passing out the evergreen twigs from a basket to all who wished to make an offering. Tsuchiya dashed by, very excited and waving his twig wildly, nearly upsetting a just-lit censer as he passed through the people preparing the procession.

"Sota!" Grampa yelped as the censer's stand rocked wildly in his wake.

"I'm on it!" Sota called back, darting after Tsuchiya to restrain him.

"Thank goodness Toushi is napping," Mama muttered as she twitched the last tie into place.

Grampa quelled a shudder. Just Tsuchiya on the loose was bad enough. He picked up the censer and looked out across the courtyard. There was at least two more minutes left in the dance. The girls were currently executing a figure in a ring, shaking belled rattles to invoke the kami. They would then weave around each other for a time then form two lines through which the procession would march. He took the moments left to inspect the procession.

The smoke in the censer he was holding guttered out.

"Makiko-chan, something is wrong with this censer," he said, waving it back and forth to see if he could coax it back to life.

Mama checked the censer, rearranged its load of incense and relit it. Grampa waved the censer again and a healthy puff of smoke drifted out. He nodded his approval. Mama smiled, then withdrew to join Sota in the congregation with her own offering branch.

The girls were now dancing the weaving figure, a very pretty interlacing of flowing ribbons and jingling rattles. As the dance wove toward its conclusion, the day became several degrees darker. Several members of the congregation looked toward the sun to find that no cloud was covering it. Muttering nervously, they looked around for some other cause for the darkness.

The door to the old, almost forgotten wellhouse suddenly blasted open, raining shards all the way into the courtyard to fall among the dancing mikos and the congregation.

The dance collapsed into a confusion of startled girls. Everyone turned toward the wellhouse to see the figure of a young white-haired man cloaked in darkness stride purposefully through the door carrying the horrifically battered body of another miko wrapped in a blazing red kimono.

"Out of my way!" he ordered, pushing his way through the crowd toward the priest's house. Stunned people melted away from his darkness, then reformed behind him, to watch him pass.

InuYasha was not taking any time to fuss with the niceties; he kicked open the door to the house too.

"Mama!" he bellowed as he entered the house.

Mama and Sota extricated themselves from the crowd and bolted to the house. Grampa watched them go, his heart nearly failing. What had happened to his granddaughter? However much he wished to follow, he was trapped; he was the priest of this shrine and it absolutely would not do to offend the kami right now. Pulling up every bit of discipline he could muster, he harried the congregation back into order, ordered the great bell struck and began the procession of the offerings, chanting prayers to the kami with feverish intensity.

Inside the house, Mama was on the phone to emergency services, reporting a medical emergency in a shaking voice. Sota had his hands full trying to explain to frightened, bewildered Tsuchiya that no, he couldn't see his mama right now, she needed to go to the doctor first.

The fire department arrived within three minutes, the ambulance was two minutes later. Medics clustered around Kagome, urgently taking her vital signs and talking on the radio to the hospital. While Mama kept a firm grip on his elbow to keep him out of the way, InuYasha hovered anxiously in the background listening to phrases he didn't understand: "patient unresponsive", "pupils uneven and unreactive", "concussion with possible intracranial hematoma", "blood pressure ninety over sixty, pulse 100, respirations 10 and labored". Even more incomprehensible instructions came back over the radio; the medics put an IV line in Kagome's arm, loaded her onto a gurney and whisked her out the door.

Mama snatched up the phone again and started dialing. "I'm calling for a cab," she said. "We need to get Kagome registered in the hospital and deal with the paperwork. Someone needs to stay here with the children."

"Grampa?" Sota asked.

Mama sighed. "Not on Festival Day," she replied. "He'll be tied up for at least two more hours."

"I'll stay," InuYasha said. "They're my children and I don't know this paperwork thing."

Still, he sounded like his heart was getting ripped out with that decision.

Mama looked at him sympathetically. "We'll be sure to phone as soon as we know anything," she assured him.

"Phone?" InuYasha looked uncertain. He had just seen Mama handling the phone, but he really wasn't sure how it worked.

"Like this, Inu-nii-chan." Sota slipped a little silver device out of his pocket, split it in half and poked at it several times. A moment later, the bell on the phone on the table started ringing.

"You hear that?" Sota asked. "When it rings like that, you pick up this," he held up the handset, "and hold it like this." He put it to his head like Mama had, one end covering his ear and the other pointing to his mouth. "My voice will come out here and you talk in here."

"Right..." Once again, InuYasha's opinion that these people practiced a very strange magic indeed was confirmed.

"Let's try it out before we go," Sota urged. He put the handset back down in its cradle and pulled out his silver device again. A couple more pokes and the phone started ringing again. InuYasha picked it up carefully and looked at it. He couldn't see anything happening.

Sota mimed holding it to his head. He held it up like Sota had shown him. The top of the handset did not make it to his ear. Sota talked into his little device and his voice came out of the top of the handset.

"Um, you can hear me, right? These things were designed for human ears."

InuYasha pulled it back a little and cocked his ear down to catch Sota's voice. It was sort of awkward and, judging by Sota's expression, he must have been a sight. Still, he could hear it.

"Try talking," Sota's voice instructed from the receiver.

He pulled the receiver away and looked at Sota. "What should I say?"

"Anything, as long as you say it in there," replied Sota, pointing at the handset.

"Oh." InuYasha picked it up again and yelled, "Can you hear me?" into the handset.

Sota jumped, bobbling his own tiny phone. He managed to catch it before it hit the floor. "Um, yeah. You don't need to yell. It works fine."

"Oh." InuYasha looked at the handset again.

"The cab's here, Sota!" Mama called from the doorway.

"Gotta go," Sota said. "I'll be sure to phone." He took the handset from InuYasha's hand and replaced it in its cradle, then hurried out the door after Mama.

InuYasha looked at the phone again, picked it up and held it to his ear. An obnoxious hum howled in his ear. He hastily replaced it and sat at the foot of the stairs, near the phone, to sweat it out.

Tsuchiya crept down the stairs from the landing and crawled into InuYasha's lap, then looked at the front door.

"What will happen to Mama?" he asked.

"There's strong magic here. The healers will fix her," InuYasha replied. He couldn't bear to think it might be otherwise.

"What happened to her?"

"A very bad man beat her up."

"Why?"

"Because he was mad at me," InuYasha said.

"Why was he mad at you?"

"Because I wouldn't do what he wanted me to."

"What did he want you to do?"

"He wanted me to obey him, do whatever he said."

"Why?"

"Because I was stopping him from going to the village."

Why?"

"Because he hurts people. Like he hurt Mama."

"Oh..." Tsuchiya's questions trailed off.

Tsuchiya could not sit still for long. His restless energy soon had him searching the house for something stimulating to release his anxiety. After a couple of abortive attempts to engage his father in a romp, he went upstairs and poked Toushi until she woke up, annoyed and snarling.

"Noo! Stop that!" she screeched, followed by the sound of a couple of things flying across the room. Next was a loud thump and the sounds of an energetic tussle.

Growling softly, InuYasha ran upstairs and pulled them apart before something big broke.

It took Toushi a moment to realize who was intervening this time. She took a few more snarling swipes at her brother, who was making faces at her from a safe distance, then forgot him completely as she noticed it was Papa who was holding her in the air by her suspenders.

"Papa!" she yelled, squirming around to grab his hair and pull him into a hug. He held her close, enjoying the feel of her arms around his neck and her awkward, sticky kisses.

"Did you miss me?" he asked. "I missed you."

Tsuchiya reached up, grabbed Toushi's foot and pulled. She growled at him and they exchanged provoking looks.

"All right, that's enough. Both of you."

Scolding, "That's enough," might work for a minute or two, but it wasn't going to keep them out of each other's hair for long. InuYasha snatched up the bouncy ball with the colored lights and started a game of chase with it while he sat at the base of the stairs, near the phone.

--

Emma-O inspected the building currents in InuYasha, then decided to dampen the heat. He was trying to anneal his soul, not burn him out.

--

InuYasha nearly jumped out of his skin when the phone rang stridently beside him. He scrambled to his feet, picked up the phone and crammed it to his head.

"Uh... umm..."

"InuYasha?" Sota's voice came from the end near his mouth.

"Ye.. yeah, I'm here."

"I'm not hearing you too well," Sota said.

InuYasha looked at the handset, frowning. Last time, Sota's voice had come from above. Tsuchiya chose that moment to throw the ball which bounced off InuYasha's head, thoroughly jumbling his thoughts.

"Um, yeah, your voice is coming from the bottom this time," he related.

There was a short pause, then Sota said patiently, "Turn the handset over. You're holding it upside down."

"Oh!" InuYasha juggled it over, getting momentarily tangled in the cord, then put it back to his head.

"Is that better?" Sota asked.

"Yeah..."

"OK, here's what we have so far. The only life-threatening injury was the head injury. She has a massive concussion and she's in surgery right now to relieve the pressure on her brain. They'll set her arm and put her leg back in place while she's out. The surgeon will talk to us after surgery to let us know how it went."

That wasn't what InuYasha really wanted to know. "When can I see her?"

"I don't know that yet. I'll try to have that answer the next time I phone. We'll know a lot more after we talk to the surgeon."

Most of that conversation made no sense to InuYasha, but Sota's tone was optimistic, so he decided things were getting better. The children reclaimed his attentions with a fight over the ball.

The Spring Festival had wound down and Grampa was back in the house when Sota phoned again. They held the phone between them to listen as Sota related, "She's out of surgery. The doctor said it went well, but he won't know if there was any permanent damage for a while. They're going to keep her asleep for a few days to give her brain a chance to heal. She's in the ICU right now, no visitors until she wakes up. We'll tell you the rest when we get home."

InuYasha blew out a breath, deeply frustrated. He had to see for himself how she was.

After the children had been settled for the night, InuYasha cornered Sota and extracted the location of the hospital from him. Sota tried again to counsel patience. "She's asleep, man, she won't even know you're there. I'll go with you tomorrow to talk to the doctors."

InuYasha did not respond, he just looked off to another place, considering.

"Inu-nii-chan..." Sota looked at him, worried. There wasn't any telling what InuYasha might do, and he wasn't getting any promises.

InuYasha flicked a look at him, direct and challenging. "What would you do if it was your wife?"

"It's my sister," Sota retorted, "I think I've got a clue."

"You know this world's healers better than I do," InuYasha replied quietly, looking away.

That statement could go either way. Sota bit his lip and stared at InuYasha, trying to read him. Normally, InuYasha was transparent, his emotions easily read. Now, however, he was as opaque as a conspiring courtier, except for the odd tendrils of darkness that persisted to drift around him.

"Don't do anything stupid," Sota finally said.

InuYasha's lips twitched in a brief ironic smile.

"Well, at least stay out of trouble," Sota allowed, also recognizing the irony.

--

It had taken a while, but InuYasha finally sniffed out Kagome's room. He had taken the precautions of changing into jeans, T-shirt and cap before he left the house, but he retained the sword, currently tucked into his belt. He pushed his way into the room and worked his way carefully around the monitors and IV rack to stand beside her bed. Bruises marred her arms and face, half her hair was shaven away to reveal an angry swollen bump with a bandage over it, her left forearm was encased in something hard and the IV tube ran into her right arm. All around her, monitors beeped and flashed. Strange scents filled the room, almost obscuring her scent. Still, her breathing was no longer labored, her color was good and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

Nevertheless, she looked so frail and her spirit was faint, almost out of reach. Very gently, he brushed her remaining hair from her face and said softly, "Hey. The doctors say they want you to sleep for a few days. I'm going to take this time to go clean up on Sumio. He'll never hurt you again."

The youki stirred again, building strength and purpose as he chose his path. He leaned over and kissed her gently.

"Come to finish her off, have you?"

InuYasha turned to see a short, stocky grizzled man in a uniform at the door. The youki flared in response to the accusation, wreathing him in dark power. His youkai stripes appeared faintly on his cheeks.

"Never," he whispered, "she is my wife."

Fujimoto Hisao didn't rattle easily. He was a veteran policeman from a yakuza task force, retired from the police now and working part-time for the hospital, although he maintained his contacts with the department. He had plenty of experience with the crime families and suspected this battered woman was a part of that world. The young man before him fit a common-enough profile, with his arrogant walk, strange appearance and openly held sword. The stripes tattooed on his cheeks were unusual, though; most yakuza kept their tattoos where they could not be easily seen.

He nodded to Kagome and asked, "Do you know who did it?"

"Yes."

The old instincts flared. Hisao leaned against the doorway, blocking the exit. "Care to tell me about it?"

"I have my enemies. One of them kidnapped her and tried to use her to coerce me. When it didn't work, he beat her up. I kept him busy while a couple of my friends got her out of his clutches. Then I got her out to help."

It was the usual reaction, a terse story with no names and no locations mentioned. The young man wasn't being actively hostile though, so Hisao decided to press for more information.

"Who did it?"

"No one you would know. I will take care of it."

Great, just what the city needed, a gang war.

"That's not too smart, son. Tell me, which family do you belong to?" Hisao had never seen this one, nor heard tell of anyone matching his description. Surely, he would have heard of someone who looked this distinctive. Were they getting imports from another city?

"Family?"

"Don't play stupid. This has yakuza written all over it."

InuYasha shook his head and started to leave the room. Hisao made way for him; the tail he had summoned when InuYasha had come into the hospital had arrived and was ready to take over. There was no point in further confrontations. They'd know the answers soon enough.

--

Now that he was reassured that Kagome was safe and comfortable, even guarded after a fashion, InuYasha returned to the Higurashi Shrine. He changed back to his normal clothing and stopped briefly to look in on the children before he left.

Tsuchiya roused as InuYasha bent to kiss Toushi goodbye.

"Papa, where are you going?" he asked, seeing InuYasha dressed in 'home' clothes.

"I'm going home for a couple of days. There's something I need to do there." InuYasha replied.

"Can I come?"

"Not this time."

"Why?"

InuYasha paused. How could he tell Tsuchiya this was no place for a child without belittling him?

"We still need you here to run messages," Sota offered, appearing at the door.

"Oh, yeah." Tsuchiya was very proud of his job of running notes back and forth across the worlds.

"Back to bed," ordered InuYasha.

Tsuchiya crawled back under his covers and lay down.

InuYasha and Sota withdrew to the hall, closing the door behind them.

"You saw her?" Sota asked.

"Yeah," InuYasha acknowledged. "She's a mess, but getting better."

"So now what?" inquired Sota as he looked over InuYasha's attire.

"Now I go clean house on the bastard that did it." The youkai stripes flared brighter on his cheeks, although his eyes remained sane. Still, the rage within him was palpable, energizing and directing the gyre of youki that rotated around him with building speed and intensity.

Sota swallowed hard and stood aside. He had seen the gentle side of Inuyasha's caring often enough, but never the savage side. He was very glad he was not on the receiving end of what was coming.

InuYasha emerged through the well and set off directly on the path to Sumio's castle. The swirling youki sustained him and sped him on his way, allowing him the fly in the manner of full youkai over the mountains and across the fields to arrive at Sumio's castle before dawn.

--

Emma-O studied the reforged portion of the anchor piece that represented InuYasha as InuYasha, himself, alighted outside Sumio's castle. The wild churning that had once characterized the motion of his dark youki had changed to a smooth current that cycled through the piece, flowing through the bright spot of Kagome's origin for purification then surging back out. The hanyou could now safely tap the fullness of his youkai heritage. Only one thing remained, learning to practice balance and restraint.

Emma-O reopened his window into the physical world and prepared to exert his power directly.

"_It's time to grow up, boy. Make the punishment fit the crime._"

--

InuYasha looked up at the great hulking bulk of the castle, now bathed in torchlight where his last attack had breached the walls. There were signs of repair work in progress; fresh stones had been placed in the walls and new timbers were stacked to the side, waiting to be sawn. The guard near the breaches had been tripled and archers lined the ramparts. The scent of human fear was heavy in the air.

As InuYasha surveyed the scene with his ears drawn back, hatred surged strongly in his heart. All those men marching back and forth, and for what?

"You really didn't think that could stop me, did you?" he growled. "You weren't paying very much attention."

He drew Tetsusaiga. There was nothing in this world he wanted more that to send Sumio and his entire castle to the depths of Hell. He held the means in his hands.

"Meidou Zangetsuha," he whispered vehemently. Tetsusaiga's blade turned the deep black of the Void, with images of star clusters swirling through it.

The youki vortex sweeping through him reached out to connect with the sword. He raised the sword overhead to begin the sweeping cut. Just as he tightened his grip to begin the sweep, the sword reacted violently to his intent, sending a powerful electric surge through his arms and leaping from his hand like the repellant alignment of a pair of magnets. It landed twenty feet behind him, back in its dormant state, smoking sullenly with an offended aura.

InuYasha looked at the sword for a long, hard moment then went to retrieve it. It permitted him to pick it up and inspect it, but when he looked back at the castle, remembering his intent, it sent a warning tingle into his hand.

"You won't do it, eh?" he asked the sword. The warning tingle faded.

"He's hurt a lot of people," InuYasha told Tetsusaiga. "He needs to be stopped."

The scent of the fear intensified, like the sword was amplifying it.

InuYasha looked up at the ramparts with their burden of frightened men doing their best to maintain their duty as they found themselves caught in the fight between a pair of uncanny lords, the demon with the human soul and the human with the demon soul. His fight was not with them. These men would leave in a heartbeat if they knew their families were safe.

_Make the punishment fit the crime._

InuYasha slipped Tetsusaiga back into his sash. He didn't need the sword to make an impression.

--

Sumio had been awake until midnight restoring order and directing the start of castle repairs. Shortly after the miko woman's escape, he had discovered the bulk of his other hostages were also loose in the compound. He quickly ordered them rounded up, but not before word of their escape had reached certain of his officers. Five of the cleverest and most daring had seized the opportunity to take their families and run in the midst of the turmoil. Other hostages had contrived to escape on their own. He was having particular trouble with a fifteen year old warlord's son who had made it into an armory and left armed with a sword, a bow and a very full quiver. Glimpses of him had been seen off and on throughout the day as he slipped about the castle, intent on causing as much havoc as possible.

Sumio had twice as many men as usual patrolling the fire watch. The wall breaches and the shattered gate were heavily guarded. He could do little else until the repairs were made. In the end, the human requirement for rest had overtaken him and he had to sleep

InuYasha found the window to Sumio's chamber, three stories up a sheer wall of the castle. It was 3:00 in the morning, near the end of the witching hour, when he jumped into the room.

Sumio was sleeping restlessly, his coverlet half kicked off by his tossing. InuYasha crouched over Sumio, staring ferally into his face, waiting for the sound of his breathing and the impact of his glare to rouse him.

Sumio quickly started awake and looked up at the man crouched over him, his form made eerie by the flickering of the many torches rippling in the breeze circulating through the room.

"Wh..what?"

"You're lucky, asshole," InuYasha told Sumio. "She's going to live. I guess that means I should let you live too."

Sumio looked wildly toward the heavily guarded doors leading to his suite. "How did you...?"

"But you caused her a lot of pain," InuYasha continued. "I can't let that go unpunished."

"Guards!" Sumio roared.

InuYasha picked him up like a rag doll and threw him against the wall. He got in a few bone-crunching punches before the guards came thundering into the room. They screeched to a halt by the doorway when he turned to look at them with glowing youkai eyes and bared fangs.

"Mononoke," one of them gasped. They hung back, reluctant to interfere with a supernatural retribution.

InuYasha turned back, casually broke a few more bones then shredded Sumio's back with his claws.

"Just remember," he said as he prepared to leave, "there's no place high enough or deep enough that I can't find you. There's no amount of men sufficient to shield you."

Sumio crouched on his knees, shaking with the pain, and looked up. "You're going to leave me like this? An honorable man would finish the job."

InuYasha quirked an ironic eyebrow at the man's hubris.

"An honorable man would not have beaten my wife. And I'd rather your soul remain among the living. You're just the sort whose ghost would haunt my family for generations."

With that, he sprang out the window and left Sumio to his rancorous thoughts.

As Sumio lay broken under the care of his healers and rumors of what had happened ran through the castle, he came to the conclusion that he must employ the aid of a priest if he was to have a hope of warding himself from the angry hanyou, for he had no intention of letting this affront go unanswered.

1


	35. Chapter 35 Desecrated Miko

Chapter 35 - Desecrated Miko

Emma-O inspected the smooth flowing of the spiritual currents through the hanyou's portion of the anchor. The moody surges and flares that had previously been characterized by burbling upwellings and churning eruptions of darkly glowing youki fires had for the most part stabilized, although shimmers of ruby red, fiery orange and dark purple laced with vivid flashes of incandescent gold continued to ripple through the flow.

Still temperamental, nevertheless, it would do. He turned his attention to the miko's portion of the anchor. He picked through the shattered pieces, still smoking from the attack. Iridescent flashes of blue, green, gold and red sparkled from the snow-white fragments. So, it wasn't pearl, it was opal, eh? Beautiful stuff, but much too fragile, prone to shattering from shock or heat.

He opened a window to the physical Kagome; she currently slept in a modern hospital, heavily sedated, as the trauma to her brain healed. He looked for her soul, but it wasn't there. It was neither near her body nor even in the room.

One time, long and not so long ago, another incarnation of this soul had fled the horror of what had been done to her and what she herself had done, unwilling to accept the consequences and gather the moral strength to set right what she could and carry on. She had run all the way to Hell, to spend the next five hundred years purging the poisons of those memories.

Emma-O searched the borders of his own realm, suspecting, and found her sitting on a tiny islet, not more than a rock, in the sea near the barrier to the Realm of the Dead.

_So, my dear, you are running away, just like last time. It hurts too much, so you just give up and flee. You still won't stay to make your peace with the aftermath. I'm afraid I can't let you do that this time._

He sent a quick message to the Gatekeeper to ensure she remained barred from the Dead, then returned to examine her token in the game. What could he do with opal fragments? There was much about the clean, bright soul of this young woman that he wanted to retain, while still building in some essential toughness.

The presence of water is intrinsic to the weakness of opal. If he cooked out the water, then applied more heat and pressure, he could recast her as crystalline quartz. That could provide sufficient strength when paired with the electric dark core provided by her lover. He had to do it slowly, though. If he hurried any of it along, he'd shatter the forming crystal irretrievably.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The young man with the long silver hair was back again. No one was quite sure how he was getting in. He never did much; he just sat in a corner of the battered woman's room, apparently dozing, although his eyes snapped open and watched keenly whenever anyone came into the room.

The staff was not quite sure what to do with him. He always came in the evenings, long after visiting hours were over. He listened quietly to suggestions that he would learn more if he came during normal business hours and talked to her doctors. He acknowledged she was sleeping and would not awaken until the doctors lifted her sedation. But he wouldn't leave.

The head nurse tried once to expel him. She escorted him off the floor and back into the night, but within half an hour, the junior nurse in charge of recording vital signs found him back at his place in her room.

Old Fujimoto Hisao, the guard, scratched his head and stared at the monitor. This one just got stranger and stranger. The tail had only marked him traveling to and from the Higurashi Shrine. Once on the grounds of the shrine, he didn't leave until it was time for his nightly vigil again. He was seen on the shrine grounds from time to time in the company of a pair of children who were obviously his, or with one or another of the Higurashis. He never went to the yakuza parts of the city and none of the known members of any yakuza family were ever seen visiting him.

He must know he was being watched. He was probably biding his time until his retaliation. In the meantime, no search of any database had turned up anyone like him. The best any of his department buddies could turn up was a tabloid article about the scandalous doings of a highly placed financier and his subsequent suicide. The article featured a fuzzy photo of the guy snarling in the financier's face on the subway.

"Oh, is he back again?"

Hisao looked back over his shoulder to see Kimie, a sweet and, in Hisao's opinion, very young, student nurse who interned at the hospital.

"Yes. Just like every other night this week."

Kimie looked at the image of InuYasha on the screen and said indulgently, "He's so sweet."

"You think so?"

"Well, sure. I mean, what could be more romantic than having a hot guy like that watching over you?"

Just like in one of her soap operas, Hisao snorted. Silently shaking his head at the foolishness of young women, he asked Kimie, "Have you ever talked to him?"

"Oh, no. It seemed disrespectful somehow."

"Do you think you could talk to him? It must be lonely watching like that every night. He might appreciate it."

"I suppose..." she said dubiously.

"Only if he feels like talking," Hisao assured her.

"Well, OK." Kimie was a sweet girl whose desire to be helpful overrode any other consideration she might have. Any request couched as a chance to be useful was sure to be earnestly pursued.

Kimie finished the rest of her rounds, then entered Kagome's room carrying two cups of tea. InuYasha looked up as she came in, then his eyebrows rose in surprise as she crouched next to him and offered him one of the cups.

He took it tentatively and turned it around in his hands as she said, "She's doing well. The chart says the doctors will start to lift the sedation tomorrow."

InuYasha nodded silently.

Kimie watched him a while longer, then asked, "Why do you come every night? You just sit here and watch. What are you looking for?"

InuYasha sipped his tea, his mien still like one whose attention was mostly elsewhere.

"She's wandering. I can scarcely feel her here. She needs a beacon to guide her in."

Kimie looked around the room, half expecting to see a ghost. "How do you know that?"

Even InuYasha was not sure how he knew. "I just have a feeling."

"What happened to her?"

InuYasha sighed, feeling crowded by his regrets. "She was kidnapped while I was away and beaten up before I could get her back. She may not feel safe coming back. It's strange though; she usually has more guts than this."

Kimie glanced at Kagome sorrowfully. "Head injuries can sometimes change a person, sort of scramble up their personality."

InuYasha looked at her with worried alarm.

Kimie drew back. "I just said they can. We won't know for sure until she wakes up."

InuYasha looked away, closing his eyes to hold in the pain.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome paced on the islet and looked longingly at the barrier to the Realm of the Dead. Rest. Oblivion. Escape. But no, it had been denied to her. She had tried the barrier three times and been repulsed.

She dove into the water and swam smoothly, like a seal, up to the barrier and coursed alongside it for a time. All around her, a slow but steady drift of people approached through the sea; the aged, the ill, the injured, and passed through the barrier unhindered. Most went quietly, approaching their expected time of death without turmoil, but some, most often the injured, arrived in bewilderment and slipped through the barrier without comprehending their fate. One or two were dragged in by the current, despite valiant efforts to swim strongly back to their lives.

"Why?" Kagome thought. Why fight so hard when oblivion would be so sweet? But the barrier would not accept her. As soon as she swam within the light of its glow, it pushed her back into the sea.

For the first time in days, Kagome looked back in the direction of life. Far away, on the horizon, a silvery light beckoned. She swam in that direction and found that the current gathered her and pushed her along, ever faster, toward the growing light.

She was in a small square room with linoleum floors and harsh fluorescent lights, sitting in the air in a back corner near the ceiling looking down at herself. Her body was lying in a hospital bed with tubes in its arms and monitors beeping and flashing around it. InuYasha was sitting on the floor in the corner opposite her, dozing. He started awake as she watched him curiously. He slowly looked up to where she sat, feeling her presence despite her invisibility.

She cocked her head, thinking. Modern hospital. InuYasha guarding her. She really didn't remember any of this. She hovered over her body and gave it a critical inspection. It wasn't pretty; she looked like Death warmed over. Odd jumbled images began to ripple through her.

Shippo calling from behind a door.

A samurai committing seppuku.

Riding a horse, bound to the saddle.

Miroku carrying her through a dark corridor surrounded by many haggard starving people.

Pain, unbelievable pain, as she flew through the air in InuYasha's arms.

Was any of it real? It all seemed so strange and distorted, more like a nightmare than memories.

She cautiously reentered her body, allowing its sensations to return to her awareness. It wasn't as bad as she had feared. She still hurt, but it wasn't unbearable. The sedation started to steal her awareness.

InuYasha rose as she returned and came to her bedside, clasping her hand in his. He stroked aside a stray lock of hair, kissed her on the forehead, then on the lips, barely touching.

"Welcome back," he whispered. "I've missed you."

It was very gentle, and yet somehow, something in his touch repulsed her. She didn't want him, or anyone else, close to her in that way.

Some ugly, visceral memory squirmed inside her, restless, but still dormant. She touched at it gently, like at a tender bruise, then shied away, certain that she didn't want to go further. She let the sedation take her away, drifting into sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well?"

Sumio looked up from the bed where he lay recovering from his wounds and snapped at his messenger peevishly. His temper, hard under the best of circumstances, was now ragged and vicious, worn to a frayed tangle of seething resentments by the constant pain that attended him. The physicians had set his arms and legs, but nothing could be done to ease the pain of his broken ribs, which grated against each other with each breath, or the throbbing in his head from the broken nose.

The trembling messenger crouched low in terrified obeisance before him, one arm outstretched with a handful of papers.

"My lord, the abbot sends to you these ofuda of exorcism. They are of the highest quality, the finest he could write. Any contact with them will dispel the most dreadful of demons."

Sumio's eyes narrowed. "I requested a priest."

The messenger swallowed at the lump in his throat that threatened to choke him. "P...Please, my lord, I told him most emphatically of your need. He said he had no one suitable to send."

He remained in his crouch, deeply resenting the faraway abbot who could so easily dismiss Sumio's demand. He fervently wished it was that bland face that was to receive the lash of Sumio's wrath, and not himself.

Sumio frowned, then winced as the movement intensified the pounding in his head. Just what was needed to make a priest "suitable" to send? This was the third monastery to refuse him. He would send a troop of samurai to the next one to insist that a "suitable" priest be produced. In the meantime, perhaps the ofuda would be of some small use. He had little confidence in sutras scrawled on tags of paper, but for the moment, it was all he had.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome was awake when InuYasha arrived the next evening, though her head was still muzzy from the drugs. She sat in the bed trying to piece together her disjointed flashes of memory into a coherent tale. So much was missing. Why couldn't she remember? She was clear on everything through the day where she was handed over to Shimomura Sumio. After that, her memories began to fracture.

She was riding a horse, bound to its saddle. She was in the middle of a scuffle, somehow, unaccountably, on Sumio's horse. She remembered that samurai, (Oh, what was his name?) staring down Sumio at the end of the fight. Somehow, she was at the root of the fight. She was to blame for his horrifying forced suicide. An overwhelming wave of guilt and sorrow swept over her and she began to cry.

InuYasha came through the door while she was lost in her grief. He stiffened and looked at her with hard eyes.

"What happened?" he asked sharply. "Who made you cry?"

Kagome shook her head and waved a hand, dismissing that notion.

"I'm just...just starting to remember," she said through her tears. "That poor man, dead because of me..." She started crying even harder, trying to purge the burden on her heart.

There was no immediate threat, so InuYasha calmed slightly, although her tears distressed him deeply. He thought he had seen her cry before. He had certainly witnessed enough of her bursts of anger and frustration, which were usually accompanied by a shower of tears and fierce assertions that she was "not crying". This was different; it seemed like her soul was slowly leaking away on the stream of her tears.

"I... I killed him," she whispered. "If I hadn't been there, he'd still be alive."

InuYasha stared at her, appalled. He simply could not imagine how Kagome could possible have been responsible for someone's death.

"What happened?" he asked.

"It's...kind of jumbled. I don't remember what started it," she gave a shuddering sigh as she tried to recollect. "I was lying across the neck of Sumio's horse, in front of Sumio, with my face stinging. Swords were out and two men were dead on the ground around us. The other samurai, I don't even remember his name, was facing off against Sumio. Later, when we got to the castle, Sumio required seppuku, for disobedience and disloyalty. I had to watch. And his family had to watch. I..." and she dissolved into tears again.

"Yeah, well, if that bastard hadn't kidnapped you in the first place, none of this would have happened," InuYasha grumbled. "It's on him, not you."

"But, bu..."

"He's messing with you Kagome. You stick to what's right, people get hurt, and suddenly it's your fault? Don't buy into it. It's just what Naraku used to do."

"Yeah, I guess..." She didn't sound convinced, though.

"How are you feeling?" InuYasha asked, forcing the conversation's focus onto her.

"Umm...kind of spacey. My head hurts, it hurts to breathe, my hip feels strange. And I guess I broke an arm," she said, looking at the cast.

"More like it got broken for you," InuYasha said bitterly. "Shippo was on the other side of the dungeon door when Sumio worked you over. He couldn't get through. I'm sorry it took us so long to get you out."

He studied her gravely, deeply aware of each nuance of her expression and gesture. The intensity of his gaze unnerved her somehow; she didn't want him so close, so focussed on her. She was intensely aware of his virility and it frightened her. His fierce power was no longer comforting; all she could think of was what he could do to her with that strength.

He leaned over for a kiss and she turned away, shuddering.

"You're mad at me," he said, his voice thick with self-reproach. "I don't blame you. I didn't have you and the kids covered. It won't happen again."

She shuddered again, feeling like some helpless pawn in a game of male possession. She had been stolen from InuYasha, kept by another, then stolen back and she really had no choice, she could not control her own destiny. She had never felt so vulnerable.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Old instincts die hard. Hisao checked the monitor again, watching the woman, who was now awake, talking to his strange young man. His cronies in the department still had not shaken out any real information on him; they had not even been able to ID him. Of course, his current appearance probably did not look like his natural state.

The woman on the screen flinched away from the man, afraid of him. That was enough for Hisao. It was time to break up the party.

He entered into a room thick with emotion.

InuYasha moved to stand between Kagome and Hisao, bristling slightly.

Hisao looked over to Kagome and said softly, "I see you're awake. I'd like to speak to you, ask a few questions."

"She's been through enough." The warning was evident in InuYasha's tone.

"I quite agree," Hisao replied, "and I'd like you to leave the room."

InuYasha bristled up even more; Hisao stared him down coolly.

InuYasha walked up to stare, nose to nose, into Hisao's eyes. "I'm going to be right outside that door. If I get even a hint that you're upsetting her, you'll be out on your ass so fast you won't even see it happen."

Hisao gazed back, trying to read InuYasha. Was he protecting her or his secrets? With luck, he'd know soon enough.

"She has nothing to fear from me," he said quietly.

"That better be true." With that, InuYasha stalked out of the room.

Kagome looked at Hisao apprehensively. Another forceful male personality was here to push her, make her do something she wasn't ready for.

Hisao composed himself, putting on a detached, professional manner.

"I understand you are not feeling well, but it is obvious there has been a crime. We need information so we can find and prosecute the perpetrators. Anything you can tell us would be useful."

Kagome's heart sank. Oh, sweet Buddha, what on Earth was she going to tell him?

"There's nothing you can do," she eventually said. "He's completely unreachable."

"Do you know who did it?" Hisao insisted.

"I think so. I don't really remember the beating."

"Him?" Hisao jerked his head toward the door.

"InuYasha? No, it wasn't him."

That was the truth. She'd looked surprised at the thought it could be him.

"But he frightens you," Hisao pressed.

"So do you," Kagome replied softly.

"Ma'am, this really isn't very helpful. If we could just have a name..."

"I told you he's completely unreachable. Anyone you find here with his name will be someone else."

Hisao scrubbed his face with his hands, thinking. He'd had some difficult interviews in the past, but this one was right up there with the best.

"Ma'am, protecting this man is not going to make you any safer."

Kagome laughed softly. "He can't reach me here."

"The hospital? We're scarcely an island of security. If you want to be safe, you need to help us out."

"It's all right. Here, I'm safe. The hospital, Tokyo, all of Honshu, it doesn't matter. He can't get here."

All right, Hisao reminded himself, this woman has had a severe blow to the head. It must have addled her. He tried another tack.

"What about him?" he asked, nodding again to the door. "He's wound up about something. He's here all the time, keeping watch."

"That's just his way," she replied. "He's very protective." Very possessive. Very, very male. Something about that was disturbing.

Hisao studied her. She was stonewalling. It wasn't the first time this had happened. He wasn't going to get any more, at least, not today. He'd keep working her.

"Very well, ma'am. Rest well. If you think of anything you'd like to share..."

Kagome nodded, relieved the interview was over.

Hisao left the room to find InuYasha leaning on the wall next to the door, waiting. The two men studied each other once more.

"Would you care to answer some questions?" Hisao asked InuYasha. InuYasha shrugged and followed Hisao to the floor's lobby.

It was well past normal visiting hours; most of the lights were off, leaving the room shadowed and dim. People were more prone to talk in the dark, feeling somehow more secure veiled in shadows. Hisao considered how to approach InuYasha. The woman said he was very protective. That little tabloid article bore witness to that. If he could appeal to the guy's desire to keep his woman safe...

"Look, son, I don't know what's going on and you all seem determined to keep it that way. Fine. OK. But your wife was nearly beaten to death and that bothers me. In a couple of days she's going to be released and she'll be back out where she is exposed to whatever is that's out there waiting for her. You can't do it alone. If you tell me who did it and where to find them, I'll pass it on to the police. We'll get them off the street and you can rest easier. So, what do you say? Will you help us out? For her sake?"

Hisao watched InuYasha cautiously, expectantly, hoping this would break the wall of silence around these people.

The young man flexed, relieving tension in his shoulders and neck, then looked back at Hisao. He looked like he was maybe twenty years old at the most. All in all he was quite a sight: jeans, a formfitting silk T-shirt draped over a trim body, a battered sword and a primitive, almost savage, string of beads and claws around his neck, that incredible mane of silvery hair topped by a soft formless hat. He moved that muscular body with the smooth limberness of the young, but the eyes that looked back at him, studying him just as closely as he was studying them, were far older than twenty.

Gods, what kind of lives did these yakuza live that they aged a boy so fast? Couldn't he have just burned that abundant energy in something like a kendo club? Hisao had always found this the hardest part of the job, witnessing the ruined lives and not being able to do much about it.

"There's nothing here I can't handle," InuYasha said eventually.

"Oh, yeah, so I saw. You handled that real well."

InuYasha bristled. "That didn't happen here."

Hisao pounced. "OK, we're back to it. If it didn't happen here, just where did it happen? Who did it?"

InuYasha looked hard into his eyes, daring him to believe. "It happened on the other side of the well, where we live. The warlord Shimomura Sumio did it."

Hisao winced. "Kid, this isn't a manga."

"You asked, I told you. If you don't like it, there isn't much I can do about it, is there?" InuYasha unlatched his gaze, then turned and walked away with the bold, erect stride of a practiced warrior.

Hisao watched him go. "No, I guess there isn't."

Several hours later, as Hisao's shift ran down and he became bored cross-eyed with the computer games, he plugged "Shimomura Sumio" into his computer and ran a Google search. The first hit on the screen was a Wikipedia entry about a minor warlord from the Sengoku Jidai employed by the Hojo clan near their border with the Ashikaga. The only reason this guy's name had come down the centuries was that he seemed to have a youkai problem. The legends listed were not too coherent, something about dogs. "Gods, spare me," he groaned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the morning Kagome was released, to Grampa's great dismay, Great Aunt Sakura appeared at the front door of the house, suitcase in hand, to help out with Kagome's convalescence. She wasted no time in establishing the pecking order, quickly picking a fight with Grampa that drove him into hiding in the shrine.

When Kagome arrived by cab with Mama later that morning, InuYasha carried her up the stairs to the shrine, lent a steady arm to stabilize her as she walked to the house and fended off Tsuchiya's boisterous exuberance until she was seated.

At first, the children were content to snuggle, wriggling, under her arms, but soon, Tsuchiya was peppering her with questions.

"Mama, what happened to your hair?"

"The doctors shaved it off so they could operate on my head," Kagome replied.

"What did they do?"

"They drilled a hole in my skull so they could drain off some fluid."

"Cool!" Tsuchiya cried.

"Can I see?" Toushi asked, getting up to look.

Both the children stood up on the couch and looked closely at their mother's bald spot.

"I don't see a hole," Toushi declared.

"It's under her skin," Sota explained.

"Why are there black strings in your head?" Tsuchiya asked.

"Those are stitches. They sewed my skin back together over the hole right there."

"Whoa! Did it hurt?"

"I was asleep when they did it."

"Didn't it wake you up?!" asked the astonished Tsuchiya.

"What's this?" Toushi asked, patting the cast.

"It's called a cast."

"What does it do?" Tsuchiya asked.

"It keeps my arm straight while the broken bone heals."

"Does it come off?"

"Not until the bone is done healing.:

"How long does that take?"

"Six weeks," Kagome replied.

"Six weeks!" InuYasha yelped. "It takes that long?!"

Everyone stared at him, surprised he didn't know that.

"Geez, if I'd ever taken six weeks to heal from a bone break, I'd be dead!"

"Now you know why the rest of us find a broken bone a big deal," Kagome said drily.

InuYasha sat down while he rethought the timetable for Kagome's recovery.

"You're not coming home for six weeks, are you?" he asked miserably.

"The doctors want to see me at least once a week to make sure my head is healing well," Kagome replied. "And I'm not going to be able to do much with this cast in the way. I'd do better here."

"Is there anything in particular you want for dinner?" Mama asked.

"Anything's fine, Mama," Kagome sighed. "I'm just happy to be here."

Kagome was subdued and distracted through dinner and into bedtime for the children. She withdrew for a bath and was gone so long that InuYasha got worried and went looking for her. He found her standing in their room wrapped in a robe and looking somberly at herself in the bureau mirror.

She ran her fingers through what remained of her hair, looking pensive, then said, "I'll have to cut it off. There's not enough left to cover the bald patch. Maybe it won't look so strange growing out that way."

InuYasha winced. Kagome's vanity expressed itself mostly through her hair. She lavished a great deal of attention on it, up to a point he considered ridiculous. This had to be killing her. There wasn't much he could do outside of letting her know he still found her desirable. "It doesn't matter to me," he said, walking up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist and starting to nuzzle behind her ear.

Kagome flinched and stood shuddering as the memories flashed back, memories like great shards of a mirror that fell back into place to reflect the horror of Sumio's malice onto InuYasha's sympathy.

She slammed an elbow into his belly, then wrenched free of his embrace.

"No!" she shouted, wheeling around to slap him. Then she darted across the room to a corner and turned back to face him, her back tucked into the security of the walls' juncture.

"Don't...touch me!" she cried. "Don't touch me." That was a whimper. She slid down to a crouch in the corner and started sobbing uncontrollably.

InuYasha was too shocked to react. As he gaped at his wife in the corner, the rest of the family charged into the room to Kagome's aid.

"What happened?" asked a bewildered Sota.

"Are you all right, Kagome-chan?" Mama asked Kagome.

"What did you do to her?" Grampa demanded of InuYasha.

"I didn't do anything!" InuYasha yelled back. "I just gave her a hug and the next thing I know, I've got an elbow in my gut."

"Nobody gets an elbow in their gut for a hug!" accused Grampa.

"Hikaru, get out," Aunt Sakura ordered. "You're not helping."

"But he..."

"Now."

Grampa was unable to withstand Aunt Sakura's withering stare. He retreated, muttering, into the hall while Aunt Sakura turned her attention to Kagome.

"All right, dear, suppose you tell us what this is all about."

Kagome looked up from the ball into which she had curled herself. "I... I... Oh, God," she gasped, then resumed sobbing.

Aunt Sakura's face hardened, then she passed out some more orders. "Get some tea, Makiko. Sota, you make sure those kids stay in bed."

After she had cleared the room of extra people, she knelt before Kagome and took her hands, compelling her attention. "Now, I want to hear about it."

Kagome glanced up uneasily at InuYasha. "Oh, no, couldn't we, I mean, just us girls...?"

"I don't think so. Whatever it is, he's going to be in the middle of dealing with it."

Kagome started shaking again. She hugged her knees in close and collapsed into herself. "It just came back, all at once," she whispered. "He held me like that, just like that, when...when..."

"Who did?" Sakura asked.

"H...He did. S...S...Sumio. It was just like that."

"You're doing fine," Sakura said soothingly. "Now tell us what he did."

The answer was already forming in InuYasha's mind. The softly flowing youki stirred and darkened, his vision closed into a tight circle focused on Kagome and Aunt Sakura. Darkness surrounded him, deep, malevolent and aroused. He clamped a tight hold onto himself as he waited for what was coming.

Kagome said it in the softest of whispers, yet it echoed in the tense silence of the room.

"He forced...forced himself on me, made me take him. If I tried to fight, he choked me until...until... Oh, God, that's enough. I...can't say anymore. I..." She resumed weeping, held close by Sakura as her soul welled up and overflowed in misery.

Rape. Pure, sadistic rape. That soulless bastard had done that to his love, to the sweet woman who had given her heart and her life into his keeping.

The youki closed in tight around his heart, then exploded out, engulfing him with its dark energy. The gyre spread and spun faster, energizing him fully, until it sparked from his fingertips and crackled in his hair. The veneer of civilization dropped away, leaving the feral dog within him unfettered. The purple stripes reblazoned themselves on his cheeks, his fangs and claws grew to match his ferocity.

"They're going to be lucky to find anything big enough to be called Sumio when I'm done," he snarled as he wheeled and leapt out the window.

He was at the wellhouse in a bound; he vaulted into the well, touched bottom, then rocketed back out, leaping out over the trees into the night sky. Taking his bearing, he set out over the forest and through the pass to the East.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alighting outside the keep on the ramparts of the castle, InuYasha paused briefly to orient himself. The last time he was here, Sumio's chambers had been at the top of the sheer wall on the right side of the castle. Ignoring the guards who were charging him, Inuyasha jumped off the ramparts, ran to the base of the wall and leapt up to the third floor window he remembered. It was now empty. His ears drew back as he sniffed the air, searching for clues to Sumio's location.

Yes, there was fresh scent in the air. His prey was still feeling his wounds, his temper savage from the pain. Good. InuYasha had never cared to hunt docile opponents. He flexed his neck and shoulders, cracked his knuckles and tested his claws, leaving great gouges in the timbers of the walls. Nothing less than an execution would satisfy him.

He tested the air again, marking the currents and the relative strength of the scent he sought. Outside, then down. The new room had a smaller window than the last, too small for him to get through. Well, that could be fixed.

He jumped down a level to the windowsill of the new room, ripped the window open wider, then hopped into the room. As Sumio looked up at the unexpected interruption, InuYasha said, "I just found out the rest of the story."

"Did you?" Sumio asked.

"Did you actually think I was just going to sit still and let you get away with violating my wife? I don't work that way, asshole. Today, you die."

Sumio fumbled with something hidden in his sleeve, whipping out a strip of paper as InuYasha closed on him and slapping it onto inuYasha's advancing arm.

The abbot who had crafted that ofuda had known his business. It flashed briefly, then sank into InuYasha's arm. InuYasha became dizzy as the charm engulfed the youki vortex surging through him and dissipated it. Gritting his teeth, InuYasha pushed back, forcing the multicolored sparkles away from his dimming vision, willing himself not to black out. With a final surge, the charm completed its work, fully exorcising all of InuYasha's youki and leaving only the human man standing before Sumio.

"You really didn't think that would be enough to defeat me, did you?" he asked softly, dangerously.

Sumio saw for the first time the man who dwelt in the heart of the youki vortex, looked into the dark, furious eyes of a husband as human as himself. So, after all the youki disappeared, he was left with this. He knew how to handle infuriated husbands. "Guards!"

Four men charged in through the door and tackled InuYasha, followed a moment later by eight more. InuYasha was an accomplished street fighter with a reckless disregard for damage to himself. Even with twelve of them massed on him, it took an impressive amount of effort to wrestle him down and bind him.

One of the guards looked up after InuYasha was bound and asked, "Do we kill him now?"

Sumio studied InuYasha, now an ordinary mortal with a split lip, a bleeding gash over his eye and what had to be a broken arm wound behind his back. InuYasha's dark eyes stared back through the flowing blood, still full of fight and fury.

"No," Sumio said slowly, considering. "I want him to share my pain. Take him to the dungeon, chain him, then break a few more limbs. Let's see what a few weeks in the dungeon does to him."

The burliest guard heaved InuYasha over his shoulder while one of the others picked up Tetsusaiga and looked at the battered blade and frayed hilt.

"What should we do with this?" he asked.

"Take it to the smith for reforging," Sumio replied. "It's useless like that."

InuYasha bucked and fought against his bindings.

"Oh, it's precious to you, is it?" Sumio asked. "So much the better. Get him out of here."

The guards withdrew and started to make their way into the bowels of the castle. The guard carrying Tetsusaiga separated from the rest at the ground level to seek out the smith. The rest of them, not trusting InuYasha to remain bound, continued together toward the dungeon.

As they entered the subterranean passages, InuYasha caught glimpses of a furtive figure following them. Their pursuer was rather short and slightly built. He moved with great agility as he darted from doorway to doorway, gliding ever closer with each run. When he was twenty feet away, a sword appeared in his hand and a moment later, he silently charged the guards, dispatching two and scattering the rest. The burly guard dropped InuYasha heavily to the floor and drew his sword to help his fellow guards. InuYasha kicked the feet out from under a couple of them then rolled to the side of the corridor and tried to get his feet under him, a difficult maneuver with his ankles tied together and his arms tied behind his back.

His mysterious savior spun across the corridor, laying waste about him. The guards reformed into a semicircle that enclosed him and InuYasha against the wall at its center. The unknown swordsman was quite young; he looked fifteen at the most. He flicked his sword twice at InuYasha and the ropes fell free. InuYasha rolled to his feet and faced the guards with the kid beside him.

The kid exploded into action, feinting to his right, then charging to his left. As the guards tried to close in behind him, InuYasha landed a couple of flying kicks and a solid slug with his good arm, then he followed through the path the kid had cleared.

The kid knew what he was doing, InuYasha had to give him that. He led the way through a baffling, labyrinthine path to a hidden alcove that overlooked the audience chamber.

Once they were safely hidden, the kid looked closely at him, inscrutable eyes carefully gauging InuYasha's response without revealing his own thoughts.

"The moonlight shimmers through the cherry petals," he said, watching both InuYasha and the door to the alcove.

InuYasha blinked. "Excuse me?"

After a moment, the kid replied, "You were not sent by Kakusaretayama Clan."

"Um, no. I had business of my own." InuYasha said.

"Ah. What business would that be?"

"That asshole Sumio raped my wife. I want his head."

The youth snorted. "So does my father. What happened to the rest of your party?"

"There's just me," InuYasha said shortly.

The kid gaped at InuYasha for a moment, then cried, "Are you crazy?"

"You're alone," Inuyasha retorted.

The kid shrugged. "I'm Kakusaretayama. We train for this from the time we can talk."

Ninja. That explained a lot.

"What business does Kakusaretayama Clan have here?" InuYasha asked.

The kid evaluated him for a time, then tossed his head. "I was a hostage. My father thought I could get clear sooner than I did. I was stuck in that dungeon for months until the miko woman was rescued a week ago. The monk freed the rest of us while he was at it. I've been improvising since then."

"That miko is my wife," InuYasha remarked.

"Wait a minute," the kid said. "I heard that miko was attached to a youkai. At least, the talk is that's what beat Sumio up last week. You're..."

"Exorcised," InuYasha said shortly. "Sumio had ofuda on him when I came visiting tonight."

"Why aren't you dispelled?" the kid asked, frowning in confusion.

"I am. At least, the youki is. I'm hanyou. The human part remained."

"Damn!" the kid exclaimed, excited by the revelation. "That's why he's been so desperate for a priest."

A jolt ran through InuYasha. "A priest! Does he have..."

"Not yet. The local monasteries don't want to send anyone here. He's going to insist soon."

"You mean, he'll just kidnap one."

"Oh, I don't know about that," the kid remarked. "An uncooperative priest can do a lot of damage. My father was hired to hold one captive for a while. That old guy really had us chasing our tails."

"Hmph. I still can't afford to wait." InuYasha stared out the door of the alcove, seething with frustration. "Damn! I need my sword back!"

"Where is it?"

"Sumio sent it to the smith for reforging." InuYasha's stomach lurched as he contemplated the damage that could be done to Tetsusaiga. The sword was utterly irreplaceable.

"The smith won't be doing anything until morning. We can just go get it."

Just go get it? InuYasha had his doubts, but that's what happened. The kid's knowledge of the castle was extensive and intimate; the path he took avoided all the guards and traveled passages. They emerged from the keep through a nearly forgotten door and made their way through the night shadows to the smithy.

The forge was banked for the night; a few embers glowed a dull red in the ashes and a faint drift of smoke rose languidly in the air. Tools hung from hooks on the beams and lay neatly arranged on shelves along the back wall. Damaged weapons were piled in a bin on one side of the forge while completed articles were racked on the other side.

"Not exactly a master swordsmith, is he?" InuYasha asked, looking over one of the completed swords.

"They don't have much of a soul, but they get the job done," the kid shrugged, twitching the sword he was carrying. "So, which one of these is yours?"

Tetsusaiga had somehow managed to slide nearly to the bottom of the bin. InuYasha finally pulled it up after the bin was three quarters unloaded.

"There you are," he murmured, sliding it into his waistband.

"Are you serious?" The kid blinked, gaping. "All this looking for that piece of junk?"

"There's a lot more to this sword than you can see. It's asleep right now. When I get my youki back..."

"You'll still need to get through Sumio's ofuda. Can that sword do that?" The kid looked at InuYasha intently.

InuYasha paused, then the memory of the effect of Kagome's arrows on the sword surfaced. "No," he admitted heavily.

"Do you know when your youki will come back?" The kid was still deadly serious; evaluating their chances.

"No!" InuYasha's frustration was making him savage. He started to march out of the smithy anyway. The kid grabbed his bad arm, sending searing jolts of pain through him as the broken bone shifted. He reeled, gasping, against the doorway. Damn, he always forgot how much an injury could hurt while he was human.

"You're in no condition to do anything," the kid informed him.

"It's got to be now," InuYasha protested. "He may have a priest the next time I get back."

"Too risky," the kid said brusquely. "Even I haven't gotten close to him and I've been trying for days. Come back when you're whole and have a way around the ofuda."

"But..."

"No. You can't tackle it yet. The first thing we learn in my clan is patience and planning. Take the time and do it right. 'The tiger haunts the water hole for days before he finds the ox unwary.'"

"Dogs chase down their prey," InuYasha retorted.

"Many dogs. You are one. It is time to think like a tiger." The dark eyes meeting his weren't conceding an inch.

And a wounded tiger misses his quarry, becomes the quarry himself. InuYasha ground his teeth, trying to work around that one.

"Keh!" He hated being powerless.

"So you'll leave?"

"For now," he replied grudgingly.

"I will stay. Seek me out when you return. I will have much to tell you."

"Give me something of yours, so I can learn your scent when I'm back to normal," InuYasha said.

The kid handed him the band tied around his brow, then said, "Passwords too. I won't know you by scent. You say, 'Dogs chase down their prey.' I say, "A tiger haunts the water hole.'"

InuYasha nodded, taking the headband and tucking it into his shirt. "I am InuYasha."

"I am Kakusaretayama Nobie." The kid bowed briefly. "Now, I know a good place to get over the wall unobserved." He led the way to where the wall was built into the side of a small hill, and clasped InuYasha's hand, lowering him over the edge to shorten the drop. InuYasha landed lightly and retreated into the bushes. He cursed softly, still smarting from the sting of his thwarted desires.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"_You cut that awfully close. What were you trying to do?_"

Emma-O looked over his shoulder to find the River Woman had returned from her visit to her river. Now cool and collected, with droplets of dew spangling her raiment and the freshness of her clear waters surging through her, she looked once more like a force to be reckoned with. She also looked like she did not approve of the recent developments.

"_My dear, you are looking splendid._" It was a vast improvement; water spirits should flow, not flutter as she had been.

The barest hint of a smile flickered across her face, then she said, "_Never mind that. Tell me why you nearly killed my anchor instead of using the opportunity to take out his._"

Good. She was back on her game and full of fight.

"_Two things. The hanyou puts too much trust in his youki. He needs to learn it is more vulnerable than he believes. Second, we must not forget the true goal is to leash Muchitsujo-rei. It occurred to me that if he believes his anchor is more powerful than it is, and that ours appears weaker, he will invest more effort here building it up and we won't lose sight of him._"

The River Woman drew in a sharp breath as she considered the complications of that scheme in the near future. She had wanted several more years to mature her anchor before fully engaging it.

"_You still cut that awfully close._" She still wasn't ready to let Emma-O off the hook.

"_Not as much as you might think. Muchitsujo-rei's warlord is not in a mood to be rational. He craves the hanyou's pain more than his removal._"

The River Woman leaned over Emma-O's shoulder to look out across the playing field to the icon of her anchor. Steam was currently rising from the opal shards in the piece. The flashes of color that had sparked it were bleeding away to leave behind a dull, white sand.

"_What have you done to the miko?_" she asked sharply.

"_I'm still working on her. Once the water is gone, I intend to press her into a new crystal, a stronger one._"

"_You may wall blow apart the bonds of the piece_," she cautioned.

"_Yes, it is a risk, but I believe it can be done._"

"_I'm not having anything to do with this little operation_," she said flatly. She found molding souls offensive. If you couldn't even have your soul go untampered, couldn't truly call your soul your own... She shuddered. It was why she found Emma-O disturbing.

"_I didn't intend that you should_," Emma-O said evenly. "_Take up the threads of the rest of the game. It will allow me to concentrate fully on her._"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three days later, InuYasha finally arrived back at the Higurashi Shrine in the very early hours of the morning. He had only just returned to his hanyou form, and the remnants of the pain from his broken arm were still haunting him.

Great Aunt Sakura was sitting at the kitchen table with a pot of tea. She looked sharply at him as he came in the door, her bright, black eyes reading him closely.

"Feeling better?" she asked tartly.

He preferred not to admit what a disaster it had been, although he suspected she already knew.

"You disapprove," he stated.

"Not entirely. He deserves whatever you can do to him. It just doesn't fix anything."

"Come again?"

"The battle is here. Sumio has cast a shadow on Kagome's soul, and this is where you will need to be to fight it. Nothing you do to Sumio on the other side will make the slightest bit of difference."

InuYasha glared at the old nun, digesting her words. Sakura's abrasive personality chafed on most people's nerves, but she had a knack for finding out exactly what was going on, and she never minced words telling you about it. It was part of her 'charm'.

His ears drew back as he contemplated his futile, and, as it appeared, pointless trip to the past.

"Now you tell me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Reader Contest!__ One of my reviewers mentioned he thought my story's title did not live up to the quality of the story. He suggested I should get a lot more hits with a snappy title (and let's admit it, we all live for those hits and reviews)._

_I'll happily admit I don't do titles very well. So here's the deal. For the next 2 weeks (ending June 1, 2008), you can send me your idea of a fantastic title for this story using private messages or reviews. If we get a winner, I'll reward the donor with a juicy spoiler. I'll even let the winner ask a specific question for his spoiler._

_Let the games begin!_

1


	36. Chapter 36 The Pain of Healing

Chapter 36 - The Pain of Healing

InuYasha returned to find that his wife had collapsed into herself. He felt like he was confronting a walled fortress surrounded by a great yawning chasm each time he approached her. She went through the motions of living, went to the doctors with Mama for her exams, tended the children, helped with the housework, but there was always that impenetrable wall separating her from the rest of the household, that chasm no one could leap. Outside of the children, who sensed something was wrong but were not sure what, everyone pussyfooted around Kagome's barriers, waiting to see if time would drop them.

The hardest part for InuYasha to bear was the crying. He hadn't known anyone could cry so much. He desperately wanted to hold her, let her cry herself out on his shoulder, but the only male presence she could tolerate for any length of time was Tsuchiya. Even Sota, who was not even remotely threatening in InuYasha's opinion, was too much. But Tsuchiya's vivid, sunny energy required engagement. It wasn't that he was particularly gentle; he usually charged into the room and latched onto Kagome with a heedless body slam that knocked her off balance if she was standing or pummeled her sore ribs if she was sitting. He dumped all of his little problems in her lap, he insisted that she play simple games with him, he showered her with pictures, each of which came equipped with a long fanciful tale that she had to listen to. InuYasha finally concluded that it was because Tsuchiya was so clueless that he was able to bridge the gap.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A week had passed, and the bathroom door was closed again. Puffs of steam wafted around the cracks in the doorway that separated the bath from the toilet. Mama stood at the door, looking anxiously at the steam. Kagome had been in there for well over two hours without any sign of movement.

"Kagome-chan?" Mama called softly. "Are you all right?"

The water splooshed softly as Kagome shifted in the tub to look at the door. "Yes," she answered. I'm still alive. I guess that's all right.

The tiles, the floor, everything around her was slick with condensed steam. She looked critically at her hands, which were bright pink with the heat and shriveled from being so long in the water. She'd scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, then stewed so long she should have dissolved, but still she couldn't lift the feeling of contamination.

Every place he had touched her seemed alive with the taint of his malice. She could almost feel the tiny legs scurrying about and spreading. She shuddered and sank lower into the water, up to her chin. She still wasn't allowed to immerse her head, though she desperately wanted to. Her hair seemed to be crawling with 'them'.

Aunt Sakura came down the stairs and poked her head into the bathroom, frowning at the steamy, still-closed door.

"She's still in there?"

Mama nodded.

"This has gone on long enough," the old woman declared. "Brooding in there will only make it worse." She turned on her heel and marched off.

Moments later, the bathroom door popped open and a naked Tsuchiya darted in, bounded onto the bath mat and launched himself into a cannonball into the tub.

"Eeeeeep!" Ker-**SPLOOSH!**

As Kagome coughed the water out of her nose and mouth, Tsuchiya surfaced and shook vigorously to get the water out of his ears.

"Hi, Mama!"

"Tsu-chan, who let you...?"

"Mama, will you help me do my hiragana?"

"Oh ... um ..."

"Pleeeeze?" Tsuchiya had recently discovered the effect "puppy-dog eyes" had on people and he was absolutely shameless about using them.

Kagome had no defenses; InuYasha had never done the "puppy-dog eyes" thing on her. She wasn't sure if it was beneath him or if it had just been too long since he had had anyone to use them on and had lost the habit. In any case, she collapsed quickly under the onslaught of a pair of big, melting amber eyes fixed with eager intensity on her.

"OK, OK, just let me get dried off." Kagome climbed out of the tub and wrapped a towel around herself. Tsuchiya jumped out after her, shook again, spraying her liberally, then wriggled through being draped with a towel himself. When he was marginally dry, he bounced out of the room to go get his hiragana tiles from Mama.

By the time Kagome was dressed and back down the stairs, Tsuchiya had pulled on some clothes and now sat fidgeting at the low table in the living room, opposite Sota, who was trying to do some homework. InuYasha looked up and studied her briefly from where he lay on his belly on the mats beside Toushi, who had bullied him into "helping" her color in a coloring book. She was currently shoving crayons in his hands and telling him what to do as she scribbled wide swaths over her own side of the book.

Kagome sat down and sorted through the tiles. Everything seemed to be there. She held one up.

"Sho," Tsuchiya said.

Toushi's eyes flicked up quickly, then she resumed coloring.

"Good," Kagome said encouragingly, holding up another.

"Yah."

Toushi's eyes flicked again. Kagome slipped that one down and held up the next.

"Ki."

"Good," Kagome said, then held up yet another.

"Not that blue!" Toushi squealed, yanking one crayon out of InuYasha's hand and cramming in another. "Draw there!" she directed.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and obeyed. Kagome stifled a giggle. Was there anything that girl couldn't get him to do? She held up another tile.

Tsuchiya hesitated. This was a hard one; there were three characters that looked a great deal alike. "Wah...," he hazarded.

Toushi glanced up. "Neh," she said matter-of-factly, then resumed coloring.

Tsuchiya shot her a sour look, then peered anxiously at Kagome. Kagome checked the tile.

"It's 'neh'," she said. "See the little loop here?"

Tsuchiya's face fell and Toushi looked quietly smug.

"Aren't you the smart one?" said an impressed InuYasha.

Tsuchiya's ears flattened as his lip stuck out in an offended pout. "This is dumb," he declared, knocking over the tiles.

"No, no, you're doing fine," Kagome assured him. "That last one was a hard one. Try another."

Tsuchiya still looked rebellious.

"Can you find the ones that spell your name?" suggested Sota, looking up briefly from his homework.

That challenge appealed to Tsuchiya. He leaned over and started digging through the tiles with a will.

Kagome sighed as she watched him sorting through the pile. She caught InuYasha watching her as he went through the motions of Toushi's coloring assignment. Melancholy washed over her. Was it ever going to be right again?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kagome descended the stairs after another restless night. InuYasha had already disappeared for a morning meeting with the villages' councils, taking the children along with him to visit Shippo for a while. Sota was just leaving the table to go to school. Mama, Grampa and Aunt Sakura all met her with searching glances as she entered the room, trying to gauge her mood and condition. She was getting sick of being inspected and returned an impassive face.

She sat down and accepted a cup of tea from Aunt Sakura as Mama turned to dish up her breakfast. Mama talked over her shoulder as she spooned porridge and arranged some fruit and fishcake on a plate.

"You have an appointment with Dr. Yamata this morning at ten, then I managed to get you an appointment with Fumiko-san this afternoon to do something with your hair," she said, turning back with a laden tray.

Kagome nodded, sipping her tea.

"It's much easier to have a positive outlook, to build up your confidence, when you are looking pretty," Mama continued.

Kagome nodded again, suppressing a shudder. The last thing she wanted was 'pretty'.

"I'm sure Fumiko-san can do something to make your hair look nice."

Kagome swallowed, trying to hold in the tears. Mama was trying too hard, she was starting to babble. She wanted to bolt back to her room and hide rather than endure a day of Mama rattling on and rubbing her raw spots unwittingly.

She took in a shaky breath. "Mama, let's just hold that thought until we get to the salon, shall we?"

"Oh. Oh, certainly, dear. I'm sorry." Mama fell silent, chagrined, which was even worse.

The table was very quiet for a while as the room throbbed with the effort not to cause pain.

Finally, Grampa said, "Makiko, could you see if my order has arrived at Murakami Mysticals while you're out?"

Aunt Sakura looked at him keenly, and asked, "Hikaru, what on earth are you getting from that old fraud?"

"He's not a fraud!" Grampa objected. "He's a large established merchant with branches all over the country."

"Really," Aunt Sakura remarked. "There's a branch in Kyoto. I went in once. The dragon scales bore a remarkable resemblance to capiz shells. Haven't you ever wondered how he manages to keep a healthy stock of tengu claws when you can never find someone who has actually encountered one?"

"I'll have you know, I, myself, was carried away by tengu in my younger years," Grampa harrumphed. "I was missing for four days, then my family found me up a pine tree in a trance. They got me back down with great difficulty and I didn't remember any of it when I awoke from the trance." He looked at Aunt Sakura triumphantly.

"Oh, is that what happened?" Aunt Sakura snorted. "I've always wondered. If I were you, Hikaru, I'd have InuYasha collect whatever you're looking for. You'd probably get the real thing and it might even be fresh!"

"Aunt Sakura!" Kagome gasped as an unwelcome image of a fresh paw dripping blood on a tray appeared vividly in her mind.

"It's an absolute waste of good money, Kagome," Aunt Sakura insisted.

"The dried ones are bad, er, good enough" Kagome said faintly. "Really."

Aunt Sakura scowled, disappointed, then reluctantly withdrew from her latest round of Grampa-taunting.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're finally developing an appreciation for these things," Grampa sniffed, shooting an offended look at Aunt Sakura.

"Um, yeah." As far a Kagome knew, only Buyo, the cat, truly appreciated them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kagome made it through the doctor's appointment in good order, but suffered a crisis at the hairdresser's salon. Fumiko-san brushed her hair this way and that, changing her part and holding her hands at different levels to visualize what different lengths would do. It brought up memories of Sumio stroking her hair, Sumio controlling her with a handful of hair, Sumio pawing her...

"Cut it off!" Kagome exploded, "Cut it all off! Every bit of it!"

"But Kagome..." Mama cried, thoroughly alarmed as Kagome started crying again.

"No, I want to start over," Kagome sobbed, "With new hair. Hair he never touched."

Neither Mama nor Fumiko-san was prepared to deal with this. By the time Kagome left the salon, all of her hair had been shorn so short she might as well have been bald. She looked at her new image in the mirror with a fierce, bright, brittle smile. "It's perfect." Absolutely, perfectly awful. Perfectly in keeping with her heart.

It still didn't cut off the defilement. Once back home, she disappeared for another prolonged soak in the bath.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

InuYasha was late returning that evening. He had returned briefly about noon to bring the children back from their excursion and left them with the old folks since Kagome and Mama were still out. His little conferences with the village heads had developed legs when he was told Saito was having problems with something that was raiding the fish ponds. The culprit turned out to be an otter youkai that was motivated at least as much by boredom as it was by hunger. It was fast, slippery, agile, and had way too much fun playing tag with him. He never did catch it and had to be satisfied with chasing it a couple of miles downstream.

On his way back to the well, he was intercepted by Sango and thoroughly pumped for every snippet of information he could produce on Kagome's condition.

"It's a wonder her luck held this long, really," Sango said grimly after he was done. "I'm going to have to teach her a few things when she gets back."

"Like what?" InuYasha asked warily.

"Like where to hide a knife and how to use it."

InuYasha had his doubts. Even if she were equipped with a knife, the Kagome he knew was unlikely to use it on another human being.

So, he was in a pensive mood when he emerged in the modern era and walked into the gloom of the shrine grounds toward the bright lights of the house. He pulled up short beside the sacred tree, halted by a forlorn figure huddled among the roots. Kagome was sitting at the base of the tree, alone in the dark, crying. She was only wearing a light sweater and a scarf wrapped around her head to counter the evening chill, so he took off his kimono wrapped it around her shoulders as he sat down next to her and asked, "Why are you out here?"

She snuggled into the kimono, pulling its protection tight around her. "I can't seem to stop crying," she said, rueful and annoyed with herself.

It didn't answer his question. He said nothing as he absorbed the complex of scents swirling around her. He caught wafts of incense and sake, then the melange of scents from her emotional state. She was a minefield of emotions, conflicting and destructive. She wanted comfort, but expected none. The sharp scents of resentment and bitterness were strongest.

"Anything I do is going to be wrong, isn't it?" he asked.

"Probably," she grumbled, "It would just cap the day."

She wasn't even going to give him a chance. InuYasha felt his temper rise in reaction and he sulked for a few moments over the injustice of it. He hadn't even been here to day. How could she decide he was guilty? Maybe it was because he wasn't here that he was guilty? Geez, it was just getting to be too much. Neither of them said anything for a while, then Inuyasha asked, "So, are you going to tell me about it or just sit there and be mad?"

She whipped off the headscarf and glared at him, daring him to say something.

He gazed at the nearly bald apparition of his wife with dismay, but managed to only say, "Ah," before slamming his mouth shut.

Thank the gods it was dark. It gave him a chance to get his mouth under control without her really seeing his staring eyes. "It's ... um ... rather shorter than I expected," was the best he could manage.

"I'm ugly, horrible, **defiled****!**" she railed, sobbing miserably.

"Uh..."

"I want to cut off everything he touched, cut off the violation. I feel so dirty! I could at least cut off my hair."

InuYasha continued to stare at her, speechless. He was way out of his depth. Half-formed thoughts pinged frantically about in his skull and he grabbed after them, trying to come up with something useful to say.

Kagome switched gears, leaving behind the hysteria. "Grampa said he would purify me. God! I don't know where he found that incense, but it absolutely reeked. He must have dumped a gallon of sacred white sake over me and I have no idea how much salt he threw around. We burned the incense and prayed and offered branches to the kami, but..."

"But nothing Grampa does ever really works," InuYasha completed. Normally, this was a source of family amusement, but right now, a potent purification charm would be welcome.

"Yeah."

She desperately needed a hug. InuYasha reached an arm around her, intending to pull her in close to his shoulder, but, once again, she turned away, burrowing herself deep into his kimono.

He sat dead silent for a moment, frustrated and hurt, then asked, "Don't I even get to be your friend?"

She stared out into the darkness. "I don't know," she said, sounding lost.

"If you don't, who does?" he asked bitterly, getting up to go check on the children.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sango, of course, told Miroku and Shippo what InuYasha had told her. They had all been in Sumio's castle at one time or another and they worried Kagome's welfare. InuYasha's report did little to assuage their fears. They tried to keep their discussions quiet, just between the three of them, but little snippets got overheard and made the rounds of the village.

The rest of the village was just as interested in Kagome's condition as her friends were; Kagome was generally liked and most people wished her well. However, solid news was hard to come by. InuYasha was seldom seen, and when he was, he was invariably bad-tempered and snarling. Sango and Minori, the only women in the village who had ever been in Sumio's castle, were frustratingly tightlipped about their experiences and refused to render any opinion about Kagome's ordeal until they had talked to her themselves.

This left an intolerable vacuum around the little snippets reaching public discussion that got gradually filled in by speculations and fancy until the story of what had actually happened had grown positively lurid.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kagome sat on the couch in the living room after returning from getting her cast removed. Had it really been six weeks? She was still muddled in her head about the passage of time.

"Mama?" she asked, turning toward the kitchen, "How long was I in the hospital again?"

Mama appeared in the doorway with a strainer in her hand. "It was about a week, Kagome-chan."

"And I've really been here for five weeks?" Kagome persisted.

Mama checked the calendar hanging on the wall, working her way through its array of appointments.

"Yes," she replied.

Kagome tried stretching her mind back again, back to before this had all started. Just when she had her last monthly? She'd had nothing in the entire time she had been here recovering. If Mama was right, it had been over four weeks. Oh God. She shuddered convulsively. InuYasha had gone through his transformation last week, and she generally followed a few days later, but she... Oh, no. Oh, please, no. Another wave of shaking wracked her as she considered the implications.

It would be hard, but she decided to ask InuYasha what he knew. She could get the answer to the first question herself, but that wouldn't answer the more important of the two questions disturbing her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were sitting outside under the sacred tree again, back-to-back in the dark. It was about the only way they talked anymore, just two disembodied voices floating in the night air.

"You've been distracted today," InuYasha said, looking up through the branches of the tree to see the three or four stars that could be seen through the city lights.

"Yeah. I've had the most awful thoughts. I, uh, I ..." She paused for a moment then pushed it out. She had to know. "Am I pregnant?"

InuYasha blew out a long, hard breath. "Yeah."

A surge of panic ran through her. She clamped down on her racing heart, then asked, "Who?"

"Hm?"

"Whose is it?"

InuYasha growled softly under his throat, then said drily, "I thought we pretty well proved last time that I can't tell that."

Oh. Yeah. She'd been so wrapped up in the current problem, she had forgotten that aspect of her last pregnancy.

"It's a girl," he said softly a moment later.

Kagome hadn't wanted to know that. 'It' was so much easier to stay detached from, to make hard decisions about. A girl. InuYasha adored his little girl.

"She could be ours," InuYasha added softly. "You were, um, ready."

"You can tell that?" Kagome wasn't sure she liked that he could read that much of her.

"Um, yeah. You smell so good then." He sounded a bit embarrassed by the admission, like he'd been caught at something, which, upon reflection, maybe he had.

"Were you trying to...?"

"No, not really, but I ... I wouldn't mind more."

"But what if it isn't yours?" Kagome insisted. Personally, the last thing on earth she wanted to do was foster that monster's spawn. "There's ... there's ways. We can start over and make sure it's yours."

She could feel his shudder of revulsion.

"No, there's too much death around us already. I, uh, I had a lot of time to think about that last time, when I was being such an idiot. Even when I thought you had found someone you wanted more than me, I decided I would always take care of your babies. Maybe I'm being a complete idiot again, but I don't care where your babies come from. I know I'm being stupid, but at least it's a stupid I can live with."

Yeah, Kagome thought, you're not the one with the monster's child in your belly.

"I'm not sure I can do that," Kagome said. "I don't want anything of his near me."

"We still don't know she's his," InuYasha reminded her. "Let's assume she's ours, for now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The River Woman looked across the playing field at her anchor, noting the crumbles of the miko with dismay. Nearly all the water was now cooked out and the pressure was building. It looked far worse to her now than it had when Emma-O had started his operation. Did he really think he was going to salvage anything from that mess?

Shuddering, she turned away and focussed her attention on the fortunes of a little imp of a sandal-bearer. It paid to have contingencies.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Soon after Kagome's cast came off, InuYasha broached the subject of returning to their home in the Sengoku Jidai. The children really needed more room to expend their abundant energy and he, himself, was not really comfortable walled up in the modern era.

Kagome was by now ready for a change of scenery. She had had enough of her family's constant, if sympathetic, scrutiny and wanted to go someplace that was not part of her feedback loop of misery.

She spent the first three days of her return at her house, laying low while she put the house back to rights after Shippo's extended stint of bachelor housekeeping. The house was clean, just excessively cluttered, as Shippo did not tend to put away the articles he was using on a regular basis.

Sango arrived for a visit on the second day and was shocked by Kagome's fragility. She chased the children outside, then she and Kagome had a long heart to heart over tea, where she heard the whole story from Kagome herself.

"He did that? And now you're pregnant?" Sango exclaimed indignantly.

Kagome nodded miserably. "Yeah, but the baby might still be InuYasha's. We just can't tell."

"Oh, girl, this is going to be tough. You should hear the stories that are circulating around right now."

"Like what?" Kagome asked apprehensively.

"I'm sorry, but you have to know. You can't go out there unprepared. To hear them talk, you had seduced several of Sumio's retainers and were busy playing one man against the other, had gone so far as to incite them into a duel for your own amusement. One samurai committed seppuku before his lord and family in a paroxysm of shame over his actions when he came to his senses while you sat there beside your prize Sumio, gloating over his demise. Then Sumio beat you for causing the death of his valued retainer and cast you into the dungeon. InuYasha rescued you and is now sorry he did after learning what you had done to an honorable man, which is why he's been so irritable lately. When it gets out that you might be carrying Sumio's child, there's going to be no end of the gossip."

"Oh sweet Buddha. It wasn't like that at all. But no one is ever going to believe me." Kagome looked at Sango beseechingly. "How can things get so twisted?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eventually, there was no getting around it; Kagome had to go to the village to restock. She cut a frail and uncertain figure as she approached the square and met the scrutiny of the village women as they fetched water from the town well. Many of them stared wordlessly, speculatively, as they saw her walk into view, baskets over one arm and holding Toushi's hand while Tsuchiya ran in front of her.

A short plump woman in her middle years raked Kagome with a gimlet eye, then said scathingly, "Well, if it isn't the so-called miko. The demon wasn't enough for you, eh? Just how many good men have you ruined with your favors by now?"

Kaou was the self appointed chairman of the "What's Right and Decent Committee". Easily the most feared woman in the village, she made and broke reputations with her tongue, serving as prosecutor, judge and executioner of all who did not meet her standards. There were only a select few who were immune from her charges. She grudgingly deferred to Kaede, the village priestess. InuYasha did not "give a flaming fart" what she thought and had told her so on several occasions. Miroku escaped by outmaneuvering her in the rumor wars. And, until now, she had not been able to get anything to stick on Kagome.

It wasn't for lack of trying. There were several aspects of Kagome's life choices that were neither "Right" nor "Decent". True mikos did not marry or consort with demonkind, but Kagome had gone so far as to marry a demon, bear demon children, and still use her miko powers. There was something very fishy about that; the kami should have turned away from her early on in her career. Kaou suspected that the power Kagome was wielding was no longer pure, if it ever had been, and had said so several times. Now she had the ammunition she needed to drive Kagome out.

Kagome flinched and tried to rally. "What are you talking about? I have no interest in any man outside of my husband."

"So you deny that a samurai committed seppuku over you?"

"No, but..."

"You deny that several samurai fought over who got to have you?"

"It wasn't like that. They..."

"You deny that you incited Sumio's lust with your depraved flirtation?"

"Sumio takes what he damned well wants regardless of what anyone else..."

"I suppose that's why InuYasha refuses to talk about you. It takes an awful lot to shame a demon, but you've managed it. I don't suppose..."

Kagome broke and fled, weeping, back to her family in the modern era, where InuYasha found her several hours later, huddled in bed with the covers over her head.

Grampa intercepted InuYasha at the door to her room and pulled him off to another room to talk.

"That was easily the stupidest thing you've ever done, dragging her off to that feudal hellhole in her current condition," he said reproachfully. "Don't you think it's time to admit she has no place there and release her back to us?"

"I can't do that," InuYasha replied. "The children will never fit in here and they need their mother."

"Well she sure in Hell doesn't need what she's getting back there. What do you have to say about that?"

"I'll take care of it."

"How?"

"I don't know yet. I need to talk to her, find out what happened."

"You leave her alone."

"I'm just going to talk. She will decide when she's ready to go back."

"No. She's not going back. Ever. You get out of her life. You're just destroying her."

"Listen, you old geezer, she's my wife, and I'm going to talk to her."

InuYasha pushed past Grampa, went into Kagome's room and sat beside her on the bed.

"Kagome?"

Kagome shifted on the bed, pulling the covers tighter over herself with a sob.

"Kagome, what happened?"

It took a while, but he eventually wheedled the story out of her. Temper flaming, he went to pay a personal call on Kaou and rattled her teeth thoroughly as he ordered her to stay well clear of his wife. The resentful Kaou took her campaign underground to the realm of whispers and innuendo.

Kagome's strong sense of duty brought her back through the well. She was Kaede's assistant and the old woman had been ailing. She spent a long morning with Kaede trying to work out what Sumio had done to her spiritual powers. It proved to be a very frustrating morning. Kagome's powers appeared to have ebbed significantly, but she could still surpass Kaede, if just barely, in most capacities. There were several flashes of uncontrolled power that surged in at unexpected moments, suggesting there was more to the story. Kaede had no answers, only the opinion that some transformation was in progress with who knew what ultimate result.

Kagome had returned to her house for the afternoon, chased the children outside with Shippo for a while and was preparing herself a pot of tea when she heard a soft knock at the door. She took a steadying breath then went to see who was there.

To her great surprise, she found Minori on the porch holding a basket full of fresh vegetables with a single perfect iris laid on top.

Minori bowed respectfully and said, "I hope I am not disturbing you."

Filled with wonder, Kagome bowed back and replied, "No, no, please come in."

Minori was a fascinating character and a prime target of the "What's Right and Decent Committee". Although she lived a quiet, reclusive life assisting old Minoru and had never been seen to do anything outside the limits of propriety, an air of scandal hung around her, fueled by rumors about what she had seen and done in Sumio's castle, sordid rumors she had never denied. For all of her quiet ways, she retained a haughtiness that discouraged familiarity.

Most of the other women in the village snubbed her, partly because the haughtiness made her seem condescending and partly because she was arguably the most beautiful woman in the village. Men would stop whatever they were doing to watch her glide by on her infrequent outings, much to the chagrin of their wives and sweethearts. Several of the bolder single men in town had approached her at various times to court her, but she had always politely turned them away.

Kagome, on the other hand, had always treated her with the same cheerful friendliness she offered to everyone. Minori had, to this point, returned appreciative smiles, but had continued to maintain her distance. Kagome wondered what drove the sudden change of heart.

She took the basket and placed it on her workbench in the kitchen, exclaiming over the perfection of the vegetables. Then she swooped the remains of lunch's noodles from the low table by the hearth and asked, "Would you like to share tea with me?"

Minori smiled that quiet smile again and said, "Yes, thank you. I would enjoy that very much indeed."

Kagome ushered her to a cushion at the table and put on the kettle, then turned to load a tray with a teapot, a pair of cups, and a plate of crisp almond cookies. She carefully nestled the iris in a small vase beside the teapot, then brought the tray to the table.

Kagome really was not proficient with serving the powdered matcha that was in vogue in this era. She had selected a jasmine-infused tea from China to go with the cookies, liking the way the light astringency of the jasmine complimented the sweetness of the cookies and feeling it made a refined, understated offering for her guest.

Tea, in these circumstances, was not a light affair. It was an art form where a subtle, silent dance of hospitality passed between the host and the guest. All attention must be paid to the elegance of the serving, the economy of the gestures. The scents and flavors, the sights and sounds of the burbling of the kettle, the pouring of the tea and the nibbling of the cookies must be savored, lingered over, allowed to infuse the senses to the exclusion of all else. Only then, when the mind has been emptied of all else, may one comment.

The tensions of the morning, the day, even the week, slipped away as Kagome concentrated on serving the tea, meditated on the cleansing astringency, then nibbled a cookie, enjoying the crispness against her teeth that melted on her tongue.

Minori closed her eyes, sipping the unusual tea and letting it wash through her mouth before swallowing. She opened her eyes and turned the cup contemplatively in her hands, then held it up to breathe the scent again.

"The sweet scent of jasmine little belies the bitterness of its tea, yet even in its bitterness, it proves a tonic to the drinker."

Such a world of things got said in that little nothing.

She took a cookie and met Kagome's eyes as she took a small bite. "It would grieve me to see the sweetness here get eaten up. I don't often encounter such things."

It was a very oblique statement of support, given in the context of the tea ceremony. That and the vegetables, which spared Kagome another trip to the village square.

"I ... Oh, I ..." The tears welled up again, this time tears of relief and gratitude that choked her into incoherence.

Minori looked down at her tea cup again. "Only someone who has been in Sumio's castle could ever understand."

"You were in there for months? How did you ever survive?"

Minori's eyes looked darkly into a distant place. "I cut myself off completely from my body. He never really touched me. I played the wanton, played the madman, took my vengeance when opportunities arose among the worst of them. Whatever it took, I did."

"I've heard such awful stories about what you supposedly did. I never believed them. Around here, you've always been so gentle."

Minori's eyebrows twitched, rising slightly. "No one knows even the beginning of what I did." She sighed softly, putting the tea cup on the table.

"I won't ask," Kagome assured her. "It's what you do while you are here that matters."

"I'm grateful. There are only a few of us who have ever escaped Sumio's castle intact. We need to stick together."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finally, when InuYasha thought if Kagome cried another drop she would blow away on the wind, the tears stopped. They left behind a dry, awful emptiness that was charged with flashes of memories, that echoed with feelings of loss and vulnerability. Everything in her had crumbled to dust.

InuYasha had not been sleeping with her since the rescue, but he wouldn't let her sleep alone. They fell back on a very old pattern, where Kagome slept on the bed while InuYasha dozed sitting against the wall, ready for anything she might need. She still wouldn't let him close enough to give her support.

She woke one morning to find him studying her from his seat against the wall. It felt like he was judging her, and perhaps finding her lacking. She watched him silently, waiting for him to declare his decision.

Finally he stirred, cocking his head with a slight frown.

"This is the first time it's ever gotten really tough for you, isn't it?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" She could think of any number of tight places she had been in.

"You know, that point where you wonder, 'Why am I still alive? Do I even want to keep on living?'."

He knew. He'd been there before. She looked at him warily, considering. Was he sympathizing with her or about to reject her for her weakness? He looked at her gravely, from across the room, across the chasm, and said, "You can't let the bastards win."

It was a challenge, spoken from one who had walked this path. OK, it happened. Now you need to decide who you are: a victim or someone who just had a really bad day. That decision comes from inside; that was something she could choose.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Kagome's pregnancy became visible, the pressures of the village gossip had once more become intolerable. No one seemed to truly believe the child was InuYasha's. The shopkeeper Rokuro, in particular, was treating Kagome with a judgmental contempt, putting out that he felt a true miko with any sense of honor would have suicided after her defilement. Most of the other villagers were more sympathetic, but, due to Kaou's whispers, were uneasy about just how the kami would view her now. Would they still send her their blessings or was she now defiled in their eyes? Could she still invoke them and be heard?

Kaede, thus far, had not been able to answer those anxieties. Kagome's chaotic spirit was still reflected in her charms. The old woman was forced to concede she had no idea what was going on in Kagome's soul.

Miroku offered Kagome some Buddhist remedies for settling an uneasy spirit. He prescribed the chanting of a trio of carefully selected invocations of the Buddha-spirit while meditating to dispel turmoil and provide focus. InuYasha was receptive to this, but when Miroku proposed a laying-on of hands to coax a soothing of her ki, InuYasha grabbed him by the collar and hustled him out of the house.

"I cannot believe that guy!" he snapped as he came back into the house. "Does he ever give it a break?" He shot a nasty look out the door, making sure Miroku was still on his way.

Shippo looked out the door too. "I don't think he was going for a grope this time. He's not completely insensitive."

Kagome, however, still looked rattled, and the strain of the last few weeks was showing. She was thinner than she should have been and dark circles shadowed her eyes. InuYasha decided to take her out of the village stew-pot and let her decompress in the modern era for a few days.

Even he was growing frustrated, though. No matter how cautious he was of her feelings, no matter how gingerly he approached her, it was never enough. The chasm remained, bridged by only the most tenuous of ropes, and Kagome continued to turn away from any of his advances.

His patience snapped early one morning as she were dressing for the day. He had slipped an arm around Kagome for a brief hug and, again, she had turned away. Overcome by a mad surge of frustration, InuYasha grabbed her by both shoulders and planted a firm kiss on her mouth. Kagome's eyes flashed angrily and she shoved him off, shouted "SIT!" then stomped out of the room.

InuYasha crashed to the floor, shaking the whole house. As soon as he was able, he lifted his head and pounded the mat with his fist. "Damn it!"

He got up and stalked downstairs.

"Good morning," Mama said as he passed by the breakfast table, doing her best to be polite and ignore whatever had been going on upstairs.

He snarled something incomprehensible and disappeared out the kitchen door, stiff-backed and bristling.

"Or maybe not...," Sota said, watching the door slam behind him.

"Actually, it's an excellent morning," Aunt Sakura said, beaming with satisfaction.

"It is?" Grampa asked. He hadn't thought Sakura also found InuYasha a problem.

"It is," she asserted. "Kagome is getting some fight back. Now we can finally resolve this mess."

Everyone watched closely as Kagome entered the kitchen for breakfast. For the first time in months, she didn't cringe as she came in, but rather, stared back defiantly. "What?"

"Bit of a tiff this morning?" Aunt Sakura asked archly.

"Yeah, maybe. Since when does he have the right to...?"

"Since you married him," Aunt Sakura replied. "We need to talk about that."

"Do we?" Kagome asked icily, still bristling.

"We do." Aunt Sakura declared, completely unfazed by Kagome's pointed suggestion that she was out-of-bounds. Nothing that trivial had ever stopped her before. "What do you think that warlord really did to you?"

"Excuse me?" Kagome stared at her in disbelief. "He raped me, for crying out loud. I might be carrying his baby! Isn't that enough?"

"No," Aunt Sakura said. "He did a lot more than that. He put himself between you and InuYasha, fixed it so that any time InuYasha touched you, you felt his touch instead. He now controls what you think about yourself and everyone around you. Every time you turn InuYasha away, Sumio just gets stronger. You're playing right into his hands. So, what are you going to do about it?"

Kagome gaped at her, outraged. The old woman was absolutely impossible. She got up from the table and stalked back upstairs to seethe.

The worst part about it was that the old woman was generally right. "_You can't let the bastards win_." "_So, what are you going to do about it?_"InuYasha's words resonated with Aunt Sakura's pointed question, the two statements twined around each other symbiotically, forming a clarion call to action.

"_You can't let the bastards win_." How was he winning? He was stealing her life. "_So, what are you going to do about it?_"Seize it back.

Kagome descended the stairs, marched up to Mama and asked, "Where's InuYasha?"

"I don't know," Mama said anxiously. "He left just after your fight."

He had to have gone through the well for a sulk. Kagome set off after him. He wasn't in his tree when she looked. So, where else would he go if he was hurt and upset? An intuition came to her, and she climbed the hill that overlooked the house, taking the long trail around it to the summit. The meadow on top, where they had consummated their marriage, was vivid with wildflowers, alive with butterflies. She walked through the grass in a cloud of yellow wings, then sat down beside him to look out over the valley.

It was the first time she had actively sought him in a while. InuYasha could sense her skittish uncertainty, but underneath it the ferocious strength of her resolve was back.

"Hey."

"Hey, yourself."

"I'm taking back my life," she announced.

A thrill ran through him; taking it back how?

"Are you?" he asked impassively, keeping a leash on his throbbing nerves.

"I am," she declared, "And I was wondering, do ... do you want to be a part of it? I've been ... awfully rough on you lately."

So. It was like that. Relaxing, he looked over at her, still noting the skittishness.

"You've put up with me often enough," he remarked. "It evens up the score for when Toushi was coming."

"I guess."

He ventured a light kiss. She held herself tight against the flinch. He felt the slight start anyway, but observed she did not draw back. So, not so easy, but she was ready to fight back, wanted to rejoin the world.

He leaned back, held out a hand, and asked, "Can you trust me?"

She was even more nervous than she had been on their wedding night. She knew what she had to do; she had to open her soul, lay it bare, let the flames of InuYasha's passion burn her clean of Sumio's touch. But no, it wasn't easy.

InuYasha felt her trembling as he stroked her back and kept a tight leash on himself, letting the heat build gradually. He understood and honored the courage it took to bring her here. He would not abuse her trust.

In the end, it was not the searing flames of passion but the long lasting embers of a steady, comfortable love that gently warmed and healed her aching soul. They remained snuggled in each others' arms until the shadows grew long and the afternoon cooled.

"We'd better go back," InuYasha said at last. "People will start worrying."

"You just want your dinner," she laughed as his stomach growled.

"Care for a ride down?" he asked, helping her to her feet.

"No, let's walk," she replied. "I don't want to hurry." She took his hand, twined her fingers around his and they walked back down the trail, reaching the well as the sun touched the horizon.

Mama smiled, greatly relieved, when she saw them come out of the wellhouse, still holding hands.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The months had slipped by as the River Woman had coaxed the threads of fate surrounding many lords and peasants, priests and warriors. She had steadfastly refused to look at her anchor while Emma-O remained huddled over it, carefully adjusting his mix of heat and pressure. It was just too hard to watch, but it continued to dwell in her mind, the fates of these people she had chosen and meddled with. Even the kami had hopes and regrets. The regret still stung painfully, and her hope remained meager.

A shifting, perhaps a relaxing, of Emma-O's stance caught her attention. He seemed to be breathing easier just now. She stole another anxious glance at her anchor. The miko's section of the piece was now glowing a vivid vermillion, a color reflected in, or perchance reflecting, the color of Emma-O's eyes. How odd the colors should match so; was he putting too much of himself into the miko's character? The temptation was always high to remake oneself when meddling with souls.

As she watched, the miko's color started to dull, to cool, ebbing away to a sullen red, then clearing to reveal a monolithic quartz crystal, pure and clear.

"Ahhh, very nice," she admitted, admiring the purity of the flawless crystal.

"Yes, even better than I expected," Emma-O rumbled, deeply pleased. "Only one thing remains."

The River Woman frowned, puzzled. It looked perfect. What more could he possibly want? She looked at him questioningly.

"It remains static. She still has not truly engaged her darkness."

The River Woman leaned over and looked closer. Embedded in the heart of the crystal was a pool of darkness, the youki gift from the hanyou at the consummation of their joining. It was still untouched, carefully walled off from the rest of her.

The hanyou's side, on the other hand, was now a dynamic, living thing, with powerful energies surging smoothly around it that dove into a pool of light at its heart to emerge, cleansed, for the next circuit.

The difference was unmistakable; still, it galled her to despoil that beautiful crystal with darkness.

"Oh, must you?" she asked.

"My dear lady, the parade of souls I have seen pass by me are as to the drops of water in your river. There are a certain number of souls who live far longer than is their due, who survive evils no one by rights should, who are 'just too mean to die'. Our little miko here needs to tap into some of that nasty pettiness. It can provide a strange sort of backbone when simple goodness fails."

The River Woman sighed unhappily. Kagome was the rock on which all around her stood. She simply could not fail. But it still pained her to see the miko handled thus.

"What are you going to put her through now?" she asked with weary resignation.

"No more than I must," was all Emma-O would say.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finally, the end of Kagome's pregnancy arrived. She began counting the days until her expected delivery. The discomfort of a full term pregnancy was this time trumped by the anguish of not knowing what she bore. Although she refused to acknowledge her qualms, they had been eating at her and she had about exhausted the limits of her faith. She maintained a brave face for InuYasha, whose nerves still jangled every time she so much as sighed without reason, but the truth was this baby could not come soon enough for her.

Nature taunted her. She had three episodes of false labor before finally settling into the real thing. Since she was so keyed up, the necessary relaxation was slow in coming and the labor dragged on. It was early in a midwinter night, about two hours after sundown, when she was finally delivered of a little girl, tiny, perfect, and completely human. She was much smaller than either Tsuchiya or Toushi had been.

Horrified rejection and maternal instinct fought it out inside Kagome as she looked, shaking, at the tiny bundle laying in her arms.

Kaede lifted the barriers around the house and allowed InuYasha back in. It was much too cold to take the baby outside, and she was unsure of his reaction in any case.

He settled himself beside Kagome on the bed and took the baby for his own inspection in the lamplight.

"She has my mother's eyes," he remarked after a time.

Kagome glanced over briefly then looked away again. That was as great a stretch of wishful thinking as she had ever heard. "Does she?" she asked dully.

"She really does," he assured her. "My old lady had the most striking black eyes and her eyebrows were just that shape."

Kagome looked over again with a bit more interest. She had seen a demon in the form of InuYasha's mother once many years ago. The woman had been extraordinarily beautiful, but Kagome found she could not remember the fine details, like the shape of her eyebrows. Still, she, herself, could not see anything particularly striking about this baby's eyes.

But the shape of her eyebrows was really of minor importance. What was important was that it looked like InuYasha was prepared to accept the child. He was setting her up to be one of his family, regardless of the facts.

"Kaou is going to have a field day with this," Kagome said glumly. Didn't he see how she was going to twist this to ridicule InuYasha as a blind cuckolded fool? She could turn any act of generosity into a scandal.

InuYasha snorted. "That old fishwife wouldn't know real decency if it smacked her in the face."

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Kagome asked. "It's really going to make Sumio's day when he hears about it."

"Let it," InuYasha said fiercely. He actually gave her a savage, satisfied grin. "It'll come to him in time that I won this round."

"What?!"

"Think about it. His child has been stolen and is being raised by his mortal enemies. We control her destiny now."

Kagome's eyebrows shot up. She hadn't ever considered it that way. Put like that, InuYasha's decision made complete sense. It appealed very strongly to that part of her that wanted revenge, that wanted to strike hard and deep into Sumio's heart. Every kindness she showed this child would serve to turn Sumio's own child against him. Whether or not she ever learned to love this girl, she could accept her under these terms. Vengeance, perhaps years in the building, but sweet vengeance all the same.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The dark energy encased in the quartz crystal surged to life, its quickening currents marked by deep purple swirls that roiled and fought against the wall encasing it. Vivid flashes of lightning attacked the wall, battering it with highly charged forces until the wall collapsed and the energy burst free to flood the crystal. The crystal began to glow with a smoky light as the darkness cycled out to the perimeter, brightened to a translucent, shimmering veil, then circled back to dive once more into the pool to recharge.

The River Woman looked over Emma-O's shoulder at the now fully activated anchor. The power pulsing off it was substantial; the jostling currents of the game field were affected in a wide radius, slowing and diffusing their energy as they ran up against it and passed by.

"_Muchitsujo-rei is not going to miss __that__,_" she observed.

"_No_," Emma-O replied, "_and he can't afford to ignore it. I expect we'll be seeing a great deal of him in this vicinity from now on. Are you prepared to take advantage of it?_"

The River Woman paused to recollect the threads of her strategy and reconcile it to the new configuration.

"_I have several hidden markers, including three potential anchors, in play in other parts of the field for the purpose of capturing territory and weakening his base. So far, they are moving as I had hoped. But I'm going to need something to entice him to keep working here, something vulnerable that he thinks he can capture._"

"_There are the children._"

"_Hm. It makes for difficult play. They are still so young._"

"_They'll grow quickly._"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The news of the human baby in InuYasha's household ran through the village like a shock wave. All day long, it was the talk of the town. The horse trader who was passing through carried the news out into the broader world, where it soon arrived in Sumio's castle.

The news of what happened later, at sunset, when the new baby acquired her family's characteristic ears, claws and eyes, failed to raise much comment. The village, after all, already had two part-youkai children. What was one more?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few weeks later, as her household returned to its normal rhythms, Kagome came back from the midnight feeding, darted under the covers and crammed herself tightly against InuYasha, shivering in the midwinter night chill.

"Man, it's cold!" she groused, shifting around to snuggle even closer.

InuYasha threw an arm around her and she grabbed it and held it close. Slowly, the circulation seeped away from the arm she was laying on, leaving it numb and tingling. He tried to shift to relieve it, but she would have none of that, muttering complaints as she resettled herself in his embrace, employing some of the small casual abuses two completely comfortable people foist on one another. He didn't mind; he'd been waiting for this moment for months. He casually nibbled along her ear, making sure his whiskers tickled abominably.

"Hey!" she protested.

"Hmm?" he murmured archly.

She rolled up to give him a grumpy look. He gazed back tranquilly.

"Oh, never mind."

He shifted, then pulled her in against his shoulder and stroked her hair, utterly content. He decided he would make a point of picking on her tomorrow, try to get her really ruffled up, just to celebrate.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Authors Note:_

_Well, kids, it's time to report on the naming contest! _

_First off, now I know what it takes to get reviews. Maybe I'll run a few more contests, if I can think of interesting topics._

_It's been a very interesting look into what aspects of the story have most registered with people. Most of you proposed a title referring to the gods and/or the game. That extra world layer seems to be playing well with everyone. A couple of you locked in on Kagome and InuYasha's marriage as a key feature._

_I got four votes to leave it alone (including the person who started this all off in the first place) and that's what I'm going to do. It seems to have been picking up traction lately, with the title passing around and landing on nomination lists for quality writing and so forth, so derailing it at this point with a name change seems counterproductive._

_That said, never let it be said I reneged on the deal. I am going to pick a winner and award the prize. Three of you gave me what I consider the same name, reworded slightly, so you may each claim either the answer to one question or a random spoiler from my stores of prewritten snippets._

_Initial A:"The Gods' Game"_

_manga:"A game of the Gods"_

_EtherealSiren:"The Game of the Gods"_

1


	37. Chapter 37 Muchitsujorei Moves

Chapter 37 - Muchitsujo-rei Moves

Muchitsujo-rei circled the rebuilt anchor, shocked, outraged and, although he was loathe to admit it, not a little alarmed. He'd had no idea it was capable of achieving anything like this strength. He could no longer afford to pick away at it with his underpowered anchor; he needed a much bigger hammer, and very soon. Reluctant as he was to engage them, he decided he would need to employ dai-youkai. There was one he could count on to react reliably to a perceived threat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Very little escaped the notice of the Lady of the Sky Dog Clan. She watched, smelled, and listened to everything that passed by on the winds, weighing each snippet of information for what threat or benefit it offered to the Clan's standing. Although it was well outside of her declared domain, she observed the flaring of an aura to the East that could not fail to arouse her.

"How very curious," she mused, tapping her claws on the arm of her seat of observation. "It's almost as if he's returned. But I know he's gone; I sealed the tomb myself."

However, she had sufficient reason for doubt. The pearl that sealed the tomb's gateway had vanished soon afterward, along with one of his swords. She suspected the duplicity of his personal minions; they never had accepted her authority. Still, she had not been able to determine just what they were trying to do, and so many years had passed that it no had longer seemed important. Now, though... Was there some plot to hide him deep underground until they had mustered the strength to oppose her openly?

No. He was gone. Too many things had happened since that day that would have had him out of hiding in a heartbeat. So, just what was that aura?

She had not done a tour of the domain for a while. It would give her a reason to depart the palace while she discretely investigated the curiosity to the East.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't a dragon, but the elemental was still a powerful water spirit. The village had been very surprised when it had reared up out of the river at dawn, demanding restitution for some slight to its honor. InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Kaede had all been summoned immediately.

Kagome and Kaede were currently talking to the elemental, trying to find out the nature of its insult and what they could do to appease it. Miroku and Sango had stationed themselves at one side of the crown while InuYasha hung at the other edge, enough separated from the villagers that he could move if need be, and listened in on the negotiations. A bad feeling was flirting about at the back of his head and he was having difficulties restraining the impulse to jump in and snatch Kagome away to safety. He passed the time studying the creature.

At about thirty feet long, it combined elements of fish and salamander, with silvery, iridescent fish scales, gills and a fishlike dorsal fin attached to a salamander's long supple body. The long slender tail sported a rippling fin structure down its length, top and bottom, and the salamander feet and hands were heavily webbed and tipped with slender, stiletto claws. Large black eyes, a carp's whiskers on its snout, and a multitude of small, sharp, backward curving teeth in its mouth completed the picture.

Kagome was remarkably effective when treating with youkai and spirits. She was one of the rare mikos who believed the spirit had as valid a viewpoint as the mortals she served and she could generally negotiate a suitable settlement in even highly charged atmospheres. Today, however, it wasn't going well. The creature's complaint remained unidentified; it insisted that they knew what they had done and were just being obstinate. Kagome was at a loss for ideas; the spirit had angrily rejected all of her suggestions and roared that it was tired of being trifled with.

InuYasha reviewed the last week or so in his head, trying to think of anything unusual that had happened. It didn't make any sense. The river was just beginning to flood from the spring thaws and no one in their right mind went anywhere near the icy, rushing waters which were laden with floating debris from the mountains. It was just too dangerous. He wondered idly if that damned otter had anything to do with it. No one had seen him for about a week.

Meanwhile, even further in the background of his consciousness, another dialog entirely was taking place. The elemental was subtly probing at his youki, testing its strength and coherence. InuYasha's vortex stirred and rippled slightly, declaring itself with a warning surge of dark power and sending out with its own probe. InuYasha had never really interacted with youkai before on this level. Up to this point, his hanyou senses had not been keen enough to detect it. Wondering, he followed the flow of his youki as it quietly informed the water spirit he was not a pushover.

The spirit was not buying it. It looked him over again with feigned indifference and decided it was a clever, hanyou bluff. InuYasha became certain that the whole thing was a show trumped up to require offerings and steal influence from the local water spirit, who was a gentle creature, friendly to the village, but with no temperament for fighting. He loosened Tetsusaiga in its sheath and pulled quietly farther away from the village council, giving himself room to maneuver.

To InuYasha's horror, Rin appeared at the back of the crowd and started working her way around to InuYasha's position holding a fussing baby Noriko. Rin was visiting again, one of her regular seasonal visits, and she had been pressed into baby-sitting duty along with Shippo for this crisis.

"Rin!" InuYasha snapped quietly, "Get her out of here!"

"Um, it's just, she's getting hungry," Rin said anxiously. "Is there something I can give her?"

Rin was looking stressed herself. She and Shippo had been dealing with InuYasha's brood all morning, but this was the one thing they couldn't handle. InuYasha glanced quickly back at the water spirit, took a deep breath and fought down his escalating anxiety.

"We would be honored to provide you with a cask of very fine sacred white sake," Kagome said, bowing gracefully before the creature. "Inari has always found it pleasing, it was brewed from the first fruits of the harvest..."

The creature ignored her and glanced toward InuYasha and Rin, noticing Rin's arrival with interest.

"Oh, great," InuYasha muttered, detecting a surge of glee in the water spirit's aura.

"I accept the gift of the maiden and the infant," it declared, looking directly at Rin.

"Ohh!" Rin gasped, wide-eyed with shock.

"Shit!" snarled InuYasha, savage with dismay. That just blew the whole situation to Hell. He stepped firmly in front of Rin and drew his sword, letting its youki flare to life.

The river spirit surged up from the bank, supple and far swifter than one would imagine a water creature would be on land, knocking aside the two mikos and confronting InuYasha directly. Kagome seized Kaede's arm and half-dragged her off the riverbank. Together, the mikos herded the villagers toward the high ground of the shrine while Miroku and Sango covered their retreat.

"Hand them over," the water spirit commanded. "This is the price my honor demands."

"Not a chance," InuYasha replied. "This whole thing stinks of a fishing expedition."

"The insolence," the water spirit muttered, flinging a torrent of water from the river at InuYasha.

InuYasha broke the flow with Testusaiga, then used the water vortex to form a backlash wave. This idiot needed a fast lesson, right now. While the spirit shook off InuYasha's attack and reformed his youki vortex, InuYasha seized Rin and carried her to the high ground of the shrine. Riding high on the escalating gyre of his own vortex, InuYasha skimmed out across the air to confront the elemental again.

The spirit called the river up out of its banks, flooding the lower fields and pulling the water ever higher, toward the village houses and shops.

Ah, damn, this was going to be about as bad as fighting a kami. InuYasha felt his own vortex spinning into a fever pitch as he reengaged his opponent. His senses sharpened, he felt as light as the air, Tetsusaiga was a ray of light in his hands. The rising heat of his youki blood jolted through him, hotter with each pulse of his heart, but the darkness did not overcome him; his mind remained clear and focussed, his passions controlled. Something had clearly happened since the dark days of Kagome's abduction. He wondered how far he could he trust it.

The water spirit formed the flooding waters into a water spout and sent it dancing toward the village watch tower. The hapless man on duty collapsed to the floor of the platform, crying out to the village kami for his salvation.

Pure force was not going to take this creature out; water could break and reform around a physical blow. He needed to sap it down. Dragon-scale transformation? He knew he couldn't absorb all the youki of an entire river, but he just needed to shatter his opponent's vortex. He opened up his senses, seeking through all the twisting, spiraling, youki currents surrounding this youkai for the true heart of the vortex. It had been a very long time since he had had to use this level of precision; the rippling distortions made it hard to find the heart of power in the midst of the undulations. He unfocussed his eyes and let his preternaturally sharp nose seek out the currents, pointing him to the thread he needed to follow. Ah, there it was, a silent eddy shimmering with scents of fresh fish and wild wasabi spinning behind the water spirit, reaching out to the river itself for its immeasurable power. And to disrupt it, he needed to cut just - _so_. Testusaiga sliced out in a wide flat arc, just skimming over the water spirit's head, casting a razor-fine line of power across the sky. The spirit's vortex blew apart; the water spout wobbled, faltered and fell back to the flooded fields as the form of the water spirit itself grew translucent and wavered on the edge of substance. The spirit grew darker, pulling itself back together.

"Kongousouha!" InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga around in a great circle and followed up with spray of diamond spears that lifted the elemental into the air and blew it across the river, sealing it on a large rock on the far bank. An outline of the spirit remained impressed into the rock, pierced with a handful of diamond pinpricks while the rest of its body melted away and ran into the river.

As InuYasha's vortex quickly dissipated, he drifted back to earth and resumed his normal capabilities. He had expended far more power in those few short moments than he normally put out in a week. His knees felt watery as he touched ground and he missed the youkai that flew overhead as his head swam in exhaustion. He wobbled to a nearby tree and clung to its trunk while he waited for his vision to clear and the roaring to leave his ears. By the time Kagome had run down the stairs from the shrine and bolted across the square to his side, he had slipped down and was sitting propped against the trunk of the tree, shaking.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Lady of the Sky Dog Clan circled over the battle site three times as she sniffed the air rising from the conflict. She had not been mistaken; the scent rising from below was nearly identical to that of her long-dead mate. This close in, though, she could detect the human musk, the mortal depletion, that would not accompany a full youkai. This must be that hanyou bastard. She had known about him, of course, but had ignored his existence; a dai-youkai would not let such a small thing disturb her. After all, most of them died, unmourned, in a handful of years.

This one was proving stubbornly long-lived. He also appeared have become strong enough to require serious consideration. If that was indeed Tetsusaiga in his hands, the sword had acquired unexpected capabilities since she had last seen it. The woman hovering beside him, acting like a bitch aiding her mate, was a powerful human miko. She sniffed the air again, then frowned in consternation. He was also breeding up a pack, the first step an ambitious dog makes when acquiring a domain; there were already three pups that were a strange and potent mixture of youkai and miko. This must be dealt with, now. Another unexpected scent drifted across her nose, the scent of that little girl her son fancied, now grown to nearly a woman.

The Lady had thought very little escaped her notice, evidently she was wrong. Very many things were happening about which she knew nothing. Hasty decisions at this point could prove disastrous, but she must move decisively to secure her position. She turned her attention to a tour of her borders as she pondered her next move.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Come on, Jaken-sama, I've been ready for ages!" Rin picked up her towel and fresh clothes and stood, waiting impatiently, for her escort.

"I certainly hope Sesshomaru-sama appreciates the sacrifices I make for him," Jaken grumbled as he picked up his staff and plodded after the girl. He still found escort duty for Sesshomaru's young ward beneath him.

"I'm sure he appreciates listening to you whine," Rin replied nastily.

"That is no way to speak to your betters," snapped Jaken.

"Yeah, well, about that..." Rin remarked, tying up her hair. Now fifteen, she was, if anything, even more full of herself than she had been at twelve. Lately, she had taken an inordinate delight in needling Jaken whenever possible, smugly secure in her privileged position with Sesshomaru.

"Enough," Sesshomaru said firmly. Both his retainers jumped and scurried off to the hot springs up the hill.

Sesshomaru could tolerate the bickering. They did it so much he had become used to it. He could not tolerate the delay. They had been in this location too often of late; it was Rin's favorite bathing spot. He did not want to establish a known travel pattern. It was bad enough that he regularly touched base with InuYasha for Rin's visits.

Rin and Jaken had only been gone a few minutes when Sesshomaru felt the aura of another youkai. Eyes narrowed, he sniffed the air for more information. It was a dog of respectable strength, although not on his level, one he had known well at one time. Karimaru, a vassal lord serving his mother - what brought him here?

"Come out. I know you're there." Sesshomaru said quietly.

A strongly built man, appearing about thirty-five years old, wearing the uniform of Mother's household and a brown fur cape across his shoulders walked out of the hazels at the edge of the clearing. Hand on his sword, he bowed curtly to Sesshomaru and said, "Sesshomaru-sama. Your honored mother sends her regards."

Damn! She'd found him.

Sesshomaru nodded back and said impassively, "My honored mother is often in my thoughts."

"But seldom in your presence," Karimaru responded, his eyes opaque, his thoughts invisible. It was Mother's script, Karimaru was merely playing the messenger. Sesshomaru waited for the rest of the message.

"Your honored mother, The Lady of the Sky Dogs, requests your immediate presence."

Of course she did. She didn't have any other whelps left to destroy with her machinations. Even her mate was now long gone. He was the only one left.

"I will come at my earliest convenience," Sesshomaru replied.

"I have no doubt you will. However, the Lady has charged me with ensuring the case." Karimaru's hand was on his sword as he spoke.

Sesshomaru knew he could cut Karimaru down, but it would serve no purpose. Karimaru was far too cagey a warrior to come alone; he no doubt had several dogs hidden in the background to support him if needed. Sesshomaru could probably deal with them too, but that put Rin at risk.

"Very well," he said, "I ask your indulgence for a brief errand, then I will be at her disposal."

Karimaru relaxed and nodded. "No doubt that can be accommodated." Then his eyes flashed a brief warning as he remarked, "Sesshomaru-sama is advised to come bearing a suitable bridal gift."

Sesshomaru's eyebrows rose. So the old bitch had found another mate to burn up. He would have thought her reputation would warn away any suitable prospects. She must have found someone from far away who did not know the gossip. She was still beguilingly beautiful and could fascinate the unwary for a long time before her cold, conniving nature became apparent. This was the best news he had heard from that quarter in years.

"Indeed. I will need some time to consider."

"Not too long, my lord," Karimaru cautioned. "Her patience runs thin." And who knew how long Karimaru had been hunting his lady's last son.

Sesshomaru thought about what would please his mother while he waited for Rin and Jaken to return. She had an unfortunate taste for sweet, young innocents; he wondered if she would consider something more robust. Or perhaps a rare artifact: she enjoyed exquisite baubles, especially if imbued with some magic power.

A short time later, Rin and Jaken reappeared from around the rocks and hopped the last few stones into the clearing. They were still bickering.

"Well, excu-use me if I ... Ohh!" Rin pulled to an abrupt halt when she saw Sesshomaru's visitor, Jaken blundering into her from behind.

"What are you doing, Rin?" Jaken grumbled, pushing her to get her moving again, then falling silent as he, too, saw their visitor. Karimaru looked at them casually, but Sesshomaru was disturbed to see the veiled interest in his eyes.

"It would appear I have an invitation to visit Mother," Sesshomaru informed them.

"Oh!" exclaimed Rin, looking intrigued and excited. They had met Sesshomaru's mother once before, and she was curious to know more.

"You will not be going," Sesshomaru said. "I will be taking you to visit InuYasha's family while I am there."

"But we just left there!" Rin cried rebelliously. "Please Sesshomaru-sama, I..."

"No," he said shortly.

"Don't you trust me?" Rin snapped. "I'm not a baby."

"I have no concerns about your conduct," Sesshomaru replied. "It is Mother whom I do not trust." Rin was growing far too close to womanhood. Mother had not quibbled about the young Rin, but now she was nearing the age of Father's human lover when he had first met her. Mother was unlikely to permit a second such transgression in the family.

"Oh," Rin said, looking puzzled. She had no idea how ruthless Mother could be.

"Jaken comes with me," Sesshomaru added, knowing Mother would ask too many questions if he came completely alone.

Jaken puffed up smugly as Rin fried him with a jealous glare.

"It won't be pleasant," Sesshomaru informed them both; they were too locked in their petty competition to heed his words. So be it.

Rin grumpily slipped her belongings into her shoulder bag, then she and Jaken mounted Sesshomaru's dragon-steed. Sesshomaru chose to lead the beast today, so he could talk to Karimaru privately as they flew.

"What does Mother have up her sleeve this time?" he asked quietly as they set off to Kaede's village.

"My Lady does not take me into her confidence," Karimaru demurred.

Sesshomaru snorted under his breath. Mother did prefer to keep her plots private, and Karimaru cultivated the air of an inattentive bumbler, but Sesshomaru knew Karimaru made it his business to know exactly what she was doing at all times. His and his clan's survival depended on it. Whether Karimaru was being reticent because he was being monitored himself, or whether he had other reasons for silence, it appeared he was not going to tell Sesshomaru directly what to expect. Very well, let's see what he could find out.

"Of course. Have there been visitors to the palace?"

"There have been visits from the matriarch of the Storm Dogs recently," Karimaru replied. That would have been general knowledge, a thing he could safely say.

Sesshomaru considered it carefully. Old friends, bitter rivals; it was impossible to say which way the wind was blowing this time. Sesshomaru grew even more wary as he reflected on what those two bitches could be plotting together.

InuYasha was very surprised to see Sesshomaru back so soon, and with an escort. He and Karimaru eyed each other discretely, each sizing the other up.

"What's going on?" he asked Sesshomaru quietly as he helped Rin slide off the saddle with her belongings.

"Mother has summoned me," Sesshomaru said shortly.

InuYasha looked at the competent Karimaru again and replied, "I see."

He didn't, really. InuYasha had never been considered powerful enough to entertain Mother's notice. As far as she was concerned, he was just the by-blow of her mate's unfortunate infatuation with that little human maiden long ago. He had no idea how fortunate he was that Mother considered him insignificant.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The breeze sighed softly through the hut, sending a loose strand of hair tickling across Shiniri's face. He scrunched his nose up, blew at the strand, then swept it out of his face with his hand. With those brief motions, any pretense of meditation dissolved and he returned to the world of petty grievances. A stiff ankle, an itchy arm, the whine of an early mosquito, all conspired to ground him firmly within his skin, a separate being from all the world around him, bored, and obliquely annoyed.

He was supposed to be considering the question: 'What is the sound of a blooming flower?'

He cast an exasperated glance at his master, Kurumi-sensei as he resettled into his lotus posture. How was the answer to this inane question supposed to lead him to anything useful? He wanted instruction about how to achieve the path to Nirvana. This was leading absolutely nowhere.

Kurumi-sensai, himself, was meditating on the puzzlement that was Shiniri. The young monk had turned up on his doorstep, ragged and hungry, just as the last warmth of autumn was giving way to the bleakness of winter. He seemed the embodiment of the storm that drove him there, raging, wailing, a soul in utter disarray.

Kurumi had brought him in, served him tea as a balm. Shiniri had completely shattered the tranquility of the ceremony with his desperate needs.

He was a refugee of Azukizaka Honganji, and before that, some nameless farming village. His traumas had left in him an aching yearning for security. The True Land sect of Amida Buddha spoke to that need, but had failed to give him security in this world, in this time. He burned for a fast path to Nirvana, a place he envisioned he could curl up in with utter security as the agony of the world passed him by.

Kurumi was a Zen master. For him, the world was here, immediate and inescapable. In Zen, one did not escape the world, one escaped into the world, became one with its entirety, all its singularity and multitudes, caught in the purity of a single moment as a lone plum petal lands on the undisturbed surface of a garden pool and ripples it imperceptibly.

The silence and emptiness of Kurumi's tiny garden was filled with the entirety of the Universe. Here, he wandered among the stars, rode the summer breezes, became the dreaming butterfly as it fanned its wings in the early morning sunlight, to die today and be born again as the ancient pine tree who watched the man it shaded, the butterfly it supported.

And here Shiniri sat, so filled with his needs and passions that he was barred from the Infinite. He was a great disturbance in the garden, a raging ball of self, walled out of the world by his perceptions.

If there ever was a soul who needed the wisdom of the Enlightened One, it was Shiniri, but he clung tenaciously to his desires, his needs, the fierceness of his self-centric viewpoint. He would not release the familiar comfort of his agony to touch the silence that would save him.

Kurumi sighed and allowed his thoughts to dance on the flickers of sunlight reflected on the garden pool. How could he help Shiniri to understand that to attain Nirvana, one must first lose one's self?


	38. Chapter 38 Visiting Mother

Chapter 38 - Visiting Mother 

Sesshomaru deliberated carefully on his mother's bridal gift and ultimately decided to stick with long-standing tradition. An exotic live prey never failed to please a bride. He chased down and subdued a young bull ogre who had been feeding on maidens from a remote mountain village renowned for its fine culinary herbs. There was a spicy savor of the herbs and a sweetness of young meat about the ogre's scent that made Sesshomaru's appetite rise as he shouldered the load.

The ogre met Karimaru's approval too. "Excellent selection, Sesshomaru-sama. It would suit the most discriminating of tastes."

Sesshomaru shrugged, then checked the security of the spell binding the ogre. "Very well," he said, "let's get this over with."

Karimaru bowed slightly, then took to the air, leading the way.

The palace of the Sky Dog Clan was located on a cloud-wreathed mountaintop, perched on vast cliffs, accessible only by air. All earthly approaches to the peak were barred by the Forest Dog Clan, vassals to the Sky Dogs who served as the palace guard.

Two brown-brindle dogs, lean and sharp-toothed, rose from the forest covering the mountain flanks as they approached, challenging them. It would appear that Mother had tightened security lately. Sesshomaru wondered what had prompted that. No doubt Mother would inform him when he arrived.

Karimaru barked out a password; the two dogs fell back to form an honor guard. Assuming human shape, one of them called, "Karimaru-sama, you took your time! It may be your throat this time."

"How fares it in the palace?"

"Tense. Her ladyship's schedule advanced unexpectedly. You had better hurry." The two guards eyed Sesshomaru with a certain amount of displeasure for having caused them and their prince so much grief. Sesshomaru growled softly, reminding them they were overstepping their bounds.

Sesshomaru tested the air as he entered the palace. The atmosphere was indeed tense; fear from the servants, frustration, even anger, from the courtiers, and a hint of something else: need, passionate need. Sesshomaru breathed out, his eyes thoughtful as he considered the possibilities. Somewhere in here, a bitch was in heat. He hoped it wasn't Mother.

Servants relieved him of his burden and a soldier of the palace guard escorted him to a courtyard garden within the walls of the palace where he found his mother in a tete-a-tete with another high-ranking bitch. The family resemblance was obvious, despite the other woman's carnelian eyes and steel-gray fur. She also bore a crescent on her forehead and her cheeks were graced with indigo stripes. The calculating gaze with which she assessed him was also very familiar. So. The Lady of the Storm Dogs was indeed visiting. He approached slowly and bowed.

"Madam."

"Sesshomaru." The Lady of the Storm Dogs rose gracefully and bowed back, then turned to Mother and said, "He'll do, Kouri-chan. You know where to find me."

The Lady departed, leaving Sesshomaru facing his mother.

"I'll do for what?"

Mother chose to not answer directly.

"You have been neglecting your Clan duties," she accused.

"I have been studying the way of my sword," he reminded her.

"Yes, of course. That's all very commendable, but it is now time to put your study to the service of the Clan."

"Ah. Is this just a general statement, or did you have something specific in mind?" Sesshomaru had learned to promise nothing until he had the whole story. The hard part was guessing when he did have the whole story.

"The Clan will be facing a challenge soon," Mother replied. "We need to prepare. As heir to the Clan, you must do your part to strengthen our position."

Sesshomaru reviewed carefully all the rumors he had heard recently, considered the restive youkai he had fought lately, and drew a blank. There was nothing he had met that could begin to mount a challenge to a well organized dog clan like the Sky Dogs.

"Are there suggestions of a palace coup in the works?" he asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped. "Are you aware of what that hanyou bastard of your father's is doing? He's breeding up a pack. You know what that means."

Sesshomaru stared at her incredulously. "InuYasha?! You're worried about a hanyou? He's thrown his lot in with the humans and doesn't really give a damn what the youkai are doing."

"Are you really that stupid, Sesshomaru? I've seen what he can do with Tetsusaiga." Mother's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And somehow, you've never seen fit to tell me about it. Are you hiding something?" Once a bitch had 'challenge' boiling in her blood, she became paranoid, suspicious of any deviation from absolute loyalty.

Sesshomaru was not sure how he was going to defuse her, but he had to try. Right now, with her suspicions were running away with her, he could well be her first victim. "Mother, I have not made it my task to monitor InuYasha's every move. I don't cross paths with him that often."

"Don't lie. I smelled that little pet girl of yours there."

"The girl is more manageable when she visits her own kind occasionally."

"I see." Mother's eyes became even harder. "And the place you choose to take her just happens to be the household of your lamentable hanyou brother whom you swore you despised. How interesting. You are the heir to the Sky Dog Clan. You need to consider more carefully where your loyalties lie."

Before Mother could bury him deeper in this hole, Sesshomaru decided to change the subject.

"Karimaru suggested I would be wise to bring a bridal gift. May I offer my congratulations?"

Mother's eyes sparkled, amused. "You may, but it's not for me. Your father was matchless; I'll never take another mate." She rose, took Sesshomaru's arm, twined her own around it, binding him to her with a powerful spell. "But come, the bride will be very pleased to see your gift."

Sesshomaru stiffened and tried to extract his arm. "Mother, what are you up to?"

"Making sure the Clan is secure. I, at least, know where my duty lies. You've been very tardy in attending to this so I had to take matters into my own hands."

"Mother..."

"Don't take that tone with me," she said sternly. "You have had more than enough time to see to the succession. If you can't be bothered with anything else, you can at least manage that."

She steered him out of the room. Karimaru and a quartet of his brindle dogs appeared from the corridors and attached themselves to the group, surrounding Sesshomaru and his mother, preventing his escape.

"'Bring a bridal gift', eh?" Sesshomaru thought savagely. He definitely owed Karimaru a private visit when this was over.

The scent of a bitch in heat grew stronger as Mother conducted him through the palace. They stopped before the door of a heavily barred room guarded by three formidable-looking old bitches. Sesshomaru's bridal gift stood quietly beside the door, still bound by his subduing spell. The soldiers surrounding Sesshomaru sniffed the air longingly, quivering with the effort to control themselves.

"Let me out!!" The sound of something being shredded by angry claws came from the room, then the wall shook heavily from a powerful impact.

"**Eea****yaugh****!**" Something else slammed into the wall, then the room's occupant howled out her need and fury.

The Lady of the Storm Dogs slipped quickly out of the room, looking ruffled under her air of competence, and joined the other bitches in holding tight the barrier spell. She glanced quickly at Sesshomaru and his gift and muttered, "None too soon. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold her."

In the early stages of a bitch's heat, a match could be formed in a civilized manner, but the longer the bitch went without satisfaction, the more desperate and potentially violent she became. The dog became more excited too, seduced by the enthralling scent of the bitch just when he most needed his wits about him. Tragic things often happened when affairs were left unsettled for too long.

This was common knowledge for all dog youkai, and it ran through Sesshomaru's mind as the potent elixir of the maiden's scent purged any desire he had to leave. He could tell she was young, powerful, and raging at the height of her heat, the surging tide of her needs pushing her near to the desperate edge of insanity. Females did not get any hotter than this, and right now, Sesshomaru was consumed with an equally mad desire to lose himself in her passion and claim her as his own.

Sesshomaru compelled the ogre to enter the door with him. Custom required a gift for the bride, and when she was this far gone, it might well save his life.

Howling, the girl spun around and threw a heavy bench at the door; Sesshomaru barely dodged it and stood facing his snarling, panting, prospective bride.

Under other circumstances, she would have been exquisite. A trim form moved under the rumpled fur-trimmed kimono. The bared teeth marred a delicate face framed by sable, silver tipped hair. The mad, glaring eyes were moonstone gray, the snarling lips a deep rose. Indigo stripes like branching bolts of lightning blazed across her cheeks.

Her eyes flicked over Sesshomaru and she licked her lips, viewing him more as prey than a prospective mate. Sesshomaru lifted the spell that bound the ogre. The ogre started awake and roared out a challenge to the youkai confronting him.

In a heartbeat, the girl surged into the form of a great silver-frosted black dog and lunged at the hapless ogre, tearing out his throat before he could blink. She ripped open his belly and bolted down the liver, then snarled possessively over her prize when Sesshomaru approached, also as a dog.

He dropped to a submissive posture and crept closer, alert for any sudden moves. The young bitch was so lost in her bloodlust she no longer knew what would save her. She drew back her ears, growling, then lunged for Sesshomaru's throat.

Sesshomaru rolled with the impact, tumbling them across the floor in a tangle of legs and tails. He was on top when they crashed into the far wall, and he held her pinned until he had provided for her needs and exhausted her passion from madness to lucidity.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Storm Dogs had a well-deserved reputation for ferocity, and Inazuma-hime was no exception.

"I have never been so humiliated in my life," she raged, pacing up and down the room in front of the door. "My mother drags me here, locks me up, shoves a dog I've never even seen before through the door and expects me to be pleased with my brilliant match. I am going to kill her."

It wasn't the most flattering assessment of the situation, but Sesshomaru shared her opinion. He, too, wanted to kill something. Karimaru was currently at the top of his list.

Inazuma-hime stopped her restless pacing and jabbed a finger at Sesshomaru's chest. "Do you know what infuriates me most about this? Those damned bitches are going to get their precious litter!"

"Are they?" he asked blandly. One dirty trick deserved another; the Ladies had more than earned some retribution.

That gave her pause. "What do you mean?"

Sesshomaru may have been maneuvered into this, but he had never met a more suitable bitch for an ambitious dog. Fiery, fierce and cunning, she was everything he could hope for. He pulled her close, ran his hands through the luxuriant fur of her kimono and breathed very softly in her ear, "Can you think of a better place to hide a pack than right under their noses?"

Her silvery-gray eyes widened, then became speculative as she thought quickly. That was always the trick, wasn't it - keeping the litter hidden until it had grown to a strong, trained pack that could back a challenge. This was a very novel approach.

"It won't be easy," Sesshomaru continued. "It will have to look like I abandoned you. They'll think they have you completely under their influence."

Inazuma-hime may have inherited her father's looks and ferocity, but she also possessed her mother's cunning character; she knew well how to dissemble. And her mate was going to let her run things her way, without interference. She liked this better and better. She pulled his head closer and whispered in his ear, "Leave it to me."

They heard the catch on the door release. Inazuma-hime caught Sesshomaru's eye and quirked an eyebrow. He saw one last, fleeting glimpse of his ferocious mate, then she dissolved into a simpering, blushing bride who clung, beaming, to his arm as they left the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sesshomaru hated being fawned over. He thought Inazuma-hime was laying it on a bit thick at the bonding feast. She poked another choice tidbit at him, her eyes laughing at his discomfort while she pouted over his reaction. Couldn't she retain even a vestige of dignity?

He glanced at their two mothers, who were ostensibly making the rounds accepting congratulations. They were watching the proceedings at the bridal table with eagle eyes, monitoring the reactions of their two pups now that their senses had returned. His irritation was working right into Inazuma-hime's show. The image of a dutiful, eager wife trying to please a cold, unresponsive mate played out before them.

It was time for the next act, creating a scene where it appeared like he was dumping Inazuma-hime on his mother to dispose of as she wished. He rose from the table and approached his mother.

"Enjoying your little charade?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, frowning.

"I'm talking about this sham of a match you've put together. You must realize that bitch is entirely unacceptable."

Mother drew herself up and stared down her nose at him, miffed. "How can you say that? She comes from the very finest bloodlines."

"Indeed? Then perhaps those bloodlines might be becoming a bit - er - rarified. I mean, really! Look at her!" Sesshomaru pointed at his bride across the room, who hung, quivering, on his every word. "If she groveled any more, we'd all be seeing her belly. I thought you'd at least have the sense to find a respectable bitch."

"Sesshomaru!" Mother snapped, aghast. "She comes very highly recommended. I've known her mother for ages. You can't be serious."

The Lady of the Storm Dogs glared at Sesshomaru and ominously growled, "Kouri, do something about him."

Sesshomaru glared back at her, then turned to his mother. "If you want that little excuse of a bitch that badly, you may have her. I'm not having anything further to do with this travesty." He turned and strode from the room while the two mothers snarled at each other.

Out of the room and right into the company of Karimaru, who just "happened" to be passing by in the corridor on palace business. Sesshomaru grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall.

"So you thought you could get away with pulling a stunt like this, did you? You couldn't be bothered to tell me I was the one getting matched?" Sesshomaru bared his claws and let the venom rise.

Karimaru swallowed hard, eyeing the glistening tips of Sesshomaru's talons. "My orders were to get you to the palace. We both know you would have refused had you known the truth. We also both know the Lady is not someone to cross."

"Neither am I," Sesshomaru reminded Karimaru.

"I fear my Lady's consequences more," Karimaru replied, snapping a sudden slash across Sesshomaru's face, then slamming his other fist into his gut. Sesshomaru dropped him and he bolted down the corridor and out the main entrance, Sesshomaru hot on his tail.

Karimaru transformed to a brindle dog as he left the building and took to the air, stretching out into a full run. Karimaru tried to lose Sesshomaru in the clouds, changing directions suddenly and even daring the turbulence of a building thunderhead in his bid to escape. Sesshomaru refused to be shaken, so Karimaru broke sharply to the right and plunged into a steep dive, bursting out of the cloud and skimming the treetops in a a low, swift flight to the East. When Sesshomaru overtook him, Karimaru dropped into the trees, dodging smoothly between the trunks as only the Forest Dogs could.

Frustrated, Sesshomaru rose back over the treetops and tracked him from there, looking for a clearing large enough to drop into for the takedown. Karimaru knew his woodcraft too well for that and wove a sinuous, unpredictable path between the trees, skirting the edge of the mountains then plunging through a narrow defile into a small hidden valley.

A surge of panic ran through Sesshomaru as he realized where they were: in InuYasha's valley, where he had left Rin. He accelerated, trying to cut Karimaru off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"All right, she's asleep," Kagome said softly, laying Noriko down for a nap, then picking up her bow and quiver for a round of archery practice with Shippo.

Rustling sounds still came from Shippo's room as he rooted around for items he could use to provide moving targets for practice. Finally he emerged, carrying a bumpy, bulging sack filled with who knew what. They tiptoed to the door and paused to look, smiling discretely, at InuYasha, before moving out to the meadow to start practice.

InuYasha was sitting on the porch stoically enduring another blatant act of father abuse perpetrated by his beloved elder daughter.

Toushi had been digging through her mother's belongings (without permission) and had unearthed a marvelous treasure, a box full of hair ornaments. There were clips, ribbons, pins, bows, combs; she had never seen anything so wonderful.

Kagome had consented to put one clip in Toushi's unruly hair, but that was not enough. Toushi wanted to try them all. She wrestled with the bobs in front to the mirror, but between the difficulties of working backwards from her reflection and the uncooperative nature of her fluffy hair, she had soon given up.

Tsuchiya had taken one look at her studying him with a bow in her hand and had immediately bolted to the top of the nearest tree. Shippo refused flatly to have anything clipped to his tail. Mama was too busy and Rin-chan was in the village getting eggs and vegetables for dinner. Then she saw her father returning from a patrol of the forest.

Papa had the prettiest hair in the village; it was long and straight and there was loads of it. She could put everything on Papa and still have hair to spare. And Papa was an easy mark.

Putting on the puppy-eyes and a shy, winsome smile, she approached her father, and InuYasha soon found himself fluttering with bows, silk flowers, hair-clips gaudy with rhinestones and a rainbow of ribbons.

He snapped to the alert, forgetting Toushi and her ribbons completely, as a pair of powerful youkai auras emerged from the canyon at the foot of the valley. Sesshomaru's scent had him on his feet in an instant. What the Hell was going on?

Rin was just topping the stairs from the village with a pair of laden baskets when the foremost of the fast-approaching youkai swooped down and snatched her. Rin screamed and let go of the baskets to beat and claw at the face of her captor. She caught sight of Sesshomaru following close behind and called, "Sesshomaru-sama! Help me!"

Kagome fired an arrow in Karimaru's path, forcing him to change direction. Another quick arrow in his path made him circle back. InuYasha took to the air as Karimaru passed over the house again, joining Sesshomaru in the pursuit.

The first thing Sesshomaru noticed as InuYasha fell in beside him was the sense that InuYasha was tapping a full-blooded youkai's power. He glanced over quickly, fearing the madness that generally accompanied that transition. The eyes that looked back at him, though red and glowing, were still completely sane and aware. Then he saw the ribbons. He blinked and looked harder, forgetting for a moment the urgency of the pursuit.

"I see you've decided to improve on merely brushing your hair," he said dryly.

"Huh?" InuYasha looked utterly perplexed.

"The sparkly butterfly just off your left ear is very fetching."

"Oh, jeez!" InuYasha blushed as he remembered Toushi's project.

"It goes particularly well with the poofy pink bow."

InuYasha turned even redder. "Yeah, well, let's just see what happens when you have a daughter," he grumbled.

"Hmph."

"Not to change the subject, but isn't this the dog you had with you when you brought Rin here? What's going on?"

"Ah, that," Shesshomaru replied, returning his attention to the chase. "Let's just say I have some issues with the way he delivered the message that Mother wanted to see me."

"Oh?"

"He left a few crucial details out."

"Such as?"

"The wedding I was to attend was my own."

"Oh!" InuYasha could see why Sesshomaru was annoyed.

Sesshomaru looked at his brother through narrowed eyes. "How long can you sustain that youki level?"

"I'm not sure, but there are limits," InuYasha admitted.

"I thought as much. Grab on. Let's save what you have for more important matters."

InuYasha grabbed onto his brother's fur and let Sesshomaru tow him through the air.

Karimaru broke to the North, into the wilder region of the mountains rimming the valley, and threaded his way through a narrow, steep canyon roaring with snow-melt.

Sesshomaru and InuYasha continued to track him, although slowed down by the rushing water and swirling mists of the water falls that obscured their vision and washed away the scent trail. They pulled to a halt at the top of the canyon and sniffed around, trying to find the trail.

"Anything?" InuYasha asked, completely baffled and hoping Sesshomaru's more sensitive nose would prevail.

"No." Sesshomaru looked out over the horizon in deep frustration.

"What's he likely to do to her?" InuYasha asked.

"Karimaru? He does not indulge in gratuitous violence. He will, however, use her to buy influence."

"From whom?"

"Me, Mother, perhaps my mate. Karimaru's only interest is protecting the welfare of his Clan and he will court or extort anyone he feels can provide it."

"So now what?" Inuyasha asked.

"Now we wait for him to contact us."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Author's Note:__ I will be on vacation for two weeks, August 7-20, 2008 and will not be near a computer during that time. Some of my trip involves some mind-numbing days spent entirely in airports and airplanes, though, so I'm planning to bring my notebooks and scribble happily away to pass that time. I hope to have some good stuff to type in for the next chapter when I get back! Hasta la vista!_


	39. Chapter 39 The Fruits of Frustration

Chapter 39 - The Fruits of Frustration 

InuYasha paused in a clearing on his path back from a meeting with the elders of Masahiro's village. That feeling was back, the feeling that he was being watched. He hated that feeling. He tested the air again, searching for the elusive scent of the watcher. Whoever it was was good. The breeze wafting through the trees was variable and shifting, and still no puff of the other's scent had drifted his way.

Growing irritable, he finally growled, "All right, enough already! Either you have something to say or you don't. Let's just get it over with."

A youkai aura appeared within a nearby cedar grove, intensified, coalesced, then Karimaru stepped out of the grove.

InuYasha stood with his hand resting lightly on Tetsusaiga's hilt, and looked keenly at Karimaru. "I thought as much. What took you so long?"

Karimaru gazed placidly back. "I try not to walk into 'situations'."

"Prefer to make them instead, eh?" InuYasha snapped. "Where's Rin?"

Karimaru did not rise to the bait; his voice and stance remained serene and relaxed. "Safe and hidden. Don't even try to find her. I've successfully hidden things from keener dogs than you."

"Feh! And that's why you came to me?" snapped InuYasha. "You're worried Sesshomaru is keen enough to track her down?"

Karimaru shrugged casually. "Not at all." He measured InuYasha with his gaze. "I know Sesshomaru well, but I don't know you and wanted to learn who you are."

InuYasha frowned. That was unexpected. "Why me? Your business is with Sesshomaru."

Karimaru leaned a shoulder against a nearby tree, still watching InuYasha closely. "I'm not so sure of that. Sesshomaru is only involved because the Lady pulled him in. You are the one the Lady is concerned enough about to gather in what remains of her mate's seed to strengthen the clan."

"Me?" InuYasha demanded, flabbergasted. "What kind of lunacy are you spouting? The Lady doesn't give a damn about me. She's never done one thing for me and thinks I'm an embarrassment. I stay out of her world and she stays out of mine."

"Really." Karimaru looked InuYasha over with hard, contemptuous eyes. "I know you have a litter. Are you truly naive enough to think that forming a pack among mortals is hidden enough?"

"What the Hell are you talking about?"

"Bluffing won't work with me. All the signs are there. You are the Old Lord's son and you have cause for grievance. You own and wield Tetsusaiga, a source of considerable power. You have chosen a powerful mate, even if she is mortal, and are rearing a litter with her."

InuYasha stared at him blankly. "I still don't get your drift. I'm married and have a few brats. So what?"

Karimaru's gaze remained locked on InuYasha. "You would do better to deal squarely with me. The Lady already knows."

"Knows what?" InuYasha snarled in exasperation. "Quit dancing around and just say it."

Karimaru's look became grim as he replied, "You are preparing a challenge to take the Lady's domain, although this is the clumsiest execution I've seen in years."

InuYasha's jaw dropped, shock jolting through him. "WHAT?! Why the Hell would I want to do that? There's no way I'd be accepted."

Karimaru quirked a shrewd eyebrow. "It's a way to force acceptance."

"Pshht. Yeah, right." InuYasha knew very well how it worked. No matter how high he rose, he would always be despised by the full youkai. "The thing is, I don't need your acceptance. I have a place here protecting these villages and raising my children. I'm plenty busy with that. About the last thing I need is more youkai in my life."

"I can't believe that the Old Lord's son would have such meager ambitions," declared Karimaru. "You have two tiny villages and a small forest, yet with Tetsusaiga in your hands you could rule half the island. Something else is going on.

"You're correct in saying you would not be readily accepted; at least acting as your own agent. But Sesshomaru - if you and he have an arrangement... He plays aloof and innocent while you raise your litter among mortals, then when the pack is grown, he makes the challenge with your backing. You would have a place as his lieutenant in the new regime."

InuYasha made a disgusted sound. "We don't get along that well. I'm sure as Hell not building my life around his ambitions."

Karimaru's interest sharpened. "What do you know about Sesshomaru's ambitions?"

"Not a damned thing. The only thing we discuss is Rin's welfare."

"Your own brother and that's all you talk about?" Karimaru asked skeptically.

"We're only recently on speaking terms at all," InuYasha retorted. "He visits me because my wife can give him advice on how human women behave. That's all he wants from me. I'm OK with that."

Karimaru pondered silently, watching InuYasha closely. He sniffed the air again, seeking further nuances. This wasn't going as he expected. He usually could detect when someone was trying to hide a conspiracy. He couldn't tell if InuYasha was an inspired liar or was indeed rejecting his youkai inheritance.

"What's the matter?" InuYasha sneered softly. "I don't fit your pat little image of the pathetic hanyou cringing around the big dogs, looking for any way in?"

Karimaru growled softly. "Watch your mouth."

InuYasha's ears pulled back in disdain. "That's about what I figured." He jabbed a finger at Karimaru and snapped, "You have exactly one thing I am interested in: Rin. Bring her back and I'll call it square. Otherwise, I may have to stick my nose in the Lady's affairs."

Karimaru thought about if for a moment, then replied, "I don't think so. At least, not yet. The girl is far too useful for now. My regrets." He bowed slightly, then vanished abruptly.

InuYasha jumped to where Karimaru had been standing and cast about quickly, searching. "Shit!" There wasn't a trace of him; no sight, no sound, no scent. InuYasha gave up trying to track him shortly afterward and turned toward home, his head spinning with implications from that conversation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The brisk days of the early spring melt had gentled into a verdant April. Tsuchiya loved the warmth of the spring sun. The air was soft and laden with the scents of green, growing things, insects buzzed and fluttered about through the blossoms of the cherry tree at the edge of the meadow and sunlight was warm on his belly as he lay on his back looking up into the tree over his head.

A soft rustling on the ground behind him made him roll over for a look. A bird was scratching around on the ground; it took off, chattering, when it saw him looking at it. Tsuchiya waggled his legs in the air while he watched a ladybug climb a blade of grass, then he saw the first grasshopper of the year. Grasshoppers were fun to hunt; he remembered that from last year. He hitched his legs under himself and started the pursuit.

He was much better at it than he was a couple of years ago. He made a quick snatch and found the grasshopper kicking and wiggling inside his cupped hands. Cool. So now what? Maybe he'd show Mama.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Toushi sat at the table carefully puzzling out a children's book. She had the hiragana down cold, but this book had a whole bunch of new symbols she had never seen before. Mama said they were called 'kanji' and that there were a whole bunch of them. When she had asked how many there were, Mama had said there were more than she could count. Toushi wrinkled her nose and thought about it. She could count pretty far, at least up to a hundred. She wondered how many more than a hundred there were of these things. She counted the number of new symbols on this page. There were five. Well, she had to start somewhere if she was going to learn these things, didn't she?

"Mama, what do these mean?"

Kagome turned from cutting vegetables for a pickle and joined Toushi at the table. As she approached, Toushi caught a familiar, unpleasant odor.

"Mama, Nawiko is stinky!"

Kagome pulled Noriko from the shawl on her back and checked her diaper. Sure enough, she needed changed. She walked Toushi through the new symbols, then got to work changing Noriko's diaper.

Toushi turned the page on the book and found two of her new symbols again, or so she thought. She turned the page back to check.

Tsuchiya came into the house, holding his hands cupped over something. He cracked his hands just a bit to peer in and something sprang out to land on the page Toushi was studying so intently. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

Tsuchiya started giggling. Toushi didn't see the humor in it and stood up, slamming the book down.

"Tsuchiya!" Toushi shrilled, "It's not funny!"

Tsuchiya just giggled harder.

Toushi grew even more infuriated, and she leaped at him, claws flying.

"Hey!" he yelped, trying to fend her off. "I didn't hit you!" He stepped back and pushed her down. She landed with a splat, face first, and bounced back up, ears flat, seething.

"All right, you two, cut it out," Kagome snapped. She had her hands full dealing with the dirty diaper and they were out of reach of her foot.

The children were so caught up in their battle they didn't seem to hear her. Toushi scored a healthy slash on Tsuchiya's arm and he retaliated with a slash to her face which just missed her eye.

Kagome whisked Noriko onto the mat then yanked the older ones apart, holding them an arm's length apart. She had had her fill of spending her days keeping them off each other's throats.

"Both of you! SIT! **NOW**!" she roared.

"Augh! Kagome!" InuYasha yelled from somewhere outside.

Kagome winced with chagrin, then turned a lethal glare on her children. Both of them shrank back, wide-eyed.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't skin you now," she hissed. They stared back, trembling.

"You! Over there!" She pointed Tsuchiya to his accustomed corner.

"You! There!" Toushi was planted in the opposite corner of the room.

Kagome picked up the screaming Noriko and was still regaining her composure when a mud-covered InuYasha stomped into the room, bellowing, "Kagome! Just what the hell was that all about? I barely step out of the forest and the next thing I know I'm face down in a puddle!"

"I was breaking up another fight," she said shortly. She glowered at the occupied corners of the room briefly, then returned to Noriko's diaper, still in a huff.

"Do you think you could find something else to yell at them?" he grumbled, running a finger under the rosary around his neck. "I don't see why I should be the one paying for it when they tick you off."

"Well, they are your children," Kagome said darkly.

"Yours too," he replied with a snort.

"My family doesn't act like that," she sniffed.

"Oh, yeah, perfect saints, every one of them," he remarked sarcastically.

"You have a lot of room to talk," Kagome snapped, starting to get wound up again. "I've been watching you and your brother for how many years now and ..."

"Uh-huh, and the last time we were at your mother's house, your grandfather and great aunt were fighting again. What was it this time? Oh, yeah. Grampa put ofuda on Aunt Sakura's door to 'expel the demon in the room' while she was meditating. She was not amused, as I recall."

Kagome glared at InuYasha, not appreciating the reminder of her own family's conflicts. Aunt Sakura had parked herself at the Higurashis, having grown "very tired of dealing with those idiots in Kyoto." She was not easy to live with and she was driving Grampa to new heights of dottiness as he tried to find some way to persuade her to go home. Lately, every time they had gone back for a visit, there was yet another harebrained spell or ritual in progress designed to dislodge Aunt Sakura.

"Aunt Sakura isn't the easiest person in the world to live with," she muttered.

"Neither is Sesshomaru," observed InuYasha, taking Noriko from her arms to greet her. "Oh, that reminds me. Guess who turned up in the forest today. Karimaru, and he seems to think I have some stupid plan in the works to take over the dog clans."

"What?" Kagome gasped. "Whatever gave him that idea?"

"Apparently, that's what children are for among the dog youkai."

"But..." Kagome began, then she fell silent, her eyes dancing around the room, unfocussed, as full comprehension sank in. "Oh, my." This was a very perilous misunderstanding. "But what can we do?"

"I'm not sure," InuYasha replied. Even living quietly avoiding the dogs was provocative. "I don't know how this works."

"Would Sesshomaru...?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah. I think I'll have to track him down, see what he has to suggest."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Things were not going according to plan in Sumio's castle. Sumio could hear the latest commotion escalating for a good five minutes before a runner dashed into the officers' meeting and collapsed into a crouch in the doorway, awaiting permission to speak.

"Yes? What is it?" he asked curtly, as all turned to hear the news.

"My Lord, the priest!" the runner cried wildly. "He has immolated himself! The stable is on fire!"

Sumio ground his teeth in frustrated fury. This was the third priest to walk this road. What did these men want? All through the three weeks of this man's tenure, Sumio had spoken to him mildly through his clenched teeth, fed him according to his dictates, housed him sumptuously, even provided him with a woman, and still, he chose to suicide with curses on his lips rather than provide the exorcistic barriers.

"We will resume discussions at the hour of the tiger," he told his officers. "Very well, let me see what this priest has done," he added to the messenger, rising awkwardly and limping after the man. Damn that infernal dog-boy! His left leg had not healed straight despite the efforts of his physician, and even now twinges of pain shot through his hip into his back when he stepped wrong on the stairs.

The stable fire was well in hand by the time he arrived. Sumio had learned that lesson with the first priest; he had them watched at all times. He looked at what remained of the priest, the charred body laying in the smoking ruins of the horses' feed stores, and prodded it with his foot.

"Hmph! Have it cleaned up."

Now he had to seek out yet another priest. This time, he would make the trip. He had at least healed sufficiently to ride a horse. Somewhere out there, there was a priest that would agree to send that dog-boy to Hell, and he was going to find him if it was the last thing he did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were altogether too many girls in the world; Tsuchiya was sure of it. He sighed heavily as he sat in the corner with his chin on his knees, holding his monkey, his ears drooping.

Hisui and Shinju had spent the morning bossing him around, stuffing him into their game as one or another heavily scripted bit character and yelling at him if he so much as said one word out of order. He had finally escaped them to find Toushi and Hato conspiring in giggling whispers to steal his monkey. They even told him it liked them better than him. Tsuchiya was very offended and it soon degenerated into a wrestling match over the monkey. He lost his temper, slashed out at Toushi, and soon found himself stuck in the house in a timeout while Mama and Sango-san chatted over tea. Now, Sango-san's youngest child, Neko, who was just crawling, had caught sight of him, grinned, and slapped her way over to plop herself beside him and poke at him.

"Neko, go away," he grumbled.

"Dah!" she said brightly, then pulled herself up to tug his left ear.

Tsuchiya moved to sit at the table beside Mama. Neko followed. He tried the other side of the table. Neko followed again.

"Neko, cats don't chase dogs," he informed her as he moved again. "Dogs chase cats."

Neko just grinned and continued to pursue him around the table.

"She's so much smaller than the others and she just doesn't seem as keen," Kagome said, studying Noriko as she slept in her arms. "I'm worried something's wrong."

"She seems pretty much like any of my babies at that age," Sango-san said encouragingly. "Why are you so worried?"

"As part of my healing, the doctors gave me drugs to keep me asleep," Kagome replied. "I was pregnant then, though I didn't know it, and the drugs may have done something to her."

"Oh, right," Sango said. "Like when I miscarried after breathing all those drugs in the pharmacy in the earthquake."

Tsuchiya tugged his mother's sleeve and put on his most desperate puppy-eyes, his ears drooping miserably. "Mama, can I pleeease go down to the village?"

"No," Kagome said shortly.

"Why not?"

"The last thing I need is one more person dragging you back up the hill and asking me to please keep a leash on my pup!"

As spring advanced into summer, Tsuchiya discovered a whole new level of freedom. Toushi and Noriko were keeping Kagome so busy that he found he was often very lightly monitored, indeed, not even missed until he was marched back up the hill by the latest annoyed neighbor. It was exhilarating to be able to explore on his own; at least, it was until he got caught.

"But Mama!"

"But Tsuchiya! You just dug up Miyako-san's freshly planted garden," recalled Kagome.

"I didn't know! Nothing was growing yet."

" Natsuko-san says her hens still aren't laying right after you chased them around her yard," remarked Kagome.

"Oh, um..." The chickens had looked very funny dashing around the yard, flapping and squawking, and he'd gathered an appreciative audience of young boys to cheer him on until Natsuko-san had burst out of her house, fiery-eyed and scolding. Somehow, he'd been the only one in sight when she collared him and hauled him home.

"Do you have any idea how many jars you knocked over when you chased that kitten into Aiko-san's shop?" continued Kagome.

"I didn't knock them over! The kitten..."

"The kitten wouldn't even have been there if you hadn't been chasing her."

"Mama, how was I supposed to know she'd go in there?"

Kagome sighed. "Tsu-chan, the point is that every time you go into the village by yourself, you get into trouble."

Tsuchiya leaned over and put his head on the table, moping. "There's nothing up here but girls," he groused. "It's so boring. I don't want to play any more dumb girl games."

Kagome sighed again. He did have a point. InuYasha and Shippo were out daily checking the borders and gathering rumors about Sumio's plans, but she couldn't let him go down to the village unmonitored and the villagers, while appreciating InuYasha's services, were still not inclined to let their children come up here alone. She was going to have to work on finding some way to get Tsuchiya out in a more controlled situation. She wondered if he was old enough to join the children on the team that chased the birds out of the fields. That might be a good outlet for his energy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shiniri sat in meditation on a rock in Kurumi's garden, unconscious of his immediate world, stretching out, reaching to connect with the infinite. He was supposed to be trying to identify with some other being, to translate his point of view to that of a leaf on the maple tree.

The last time Kurumi-sensei had queried him, he had replied, "I have been thinking long about it, Sensei. I imagine the leaf feels the warmth of the sun, the breath of the wind..."

Kurumi-sensei had hit him with his staff and said, "Don't think. Be," then stalked off.

A wave of frustration flooded Shiniri. Be the leaf? What did Sensei expect? He was a man. How was he supposed to know what it was to be a leaf? He took a few deep, steadying breaths, then gathered his focus again and started reaching.

Old Kurumi watched his student sadly through half-lidded eyes. The principle of Zen was actually quite simple; the problem was it could not be taught. Words and concepts only made a barrier to its understanding. In this teaching, the master often gave a task to the student, something innately contradictory, and waited for that flash when the student was driven beyond thinking to perception, that moment when they let go of their preconceptions to accept _what is_ in all its glory. The student had to make this leap himself, unassisted. Shiniri was having a particularly difficult time of it.

Now, under Kurumi's watchful eye, Shiniri, in his need, was reaching out, stretching toward something that reached back, something that was not the Buddha-source.

The boy would not let go, and there was no way he could reach the Buddha-source without loosing his ties to his selfness. Kurumi was tempted to smack him again to see if he could shatter the link holding him self-bound and send him spinning into the infinite.

The light bamboo cane snapped sharply into the back of Shiniri's head; he jumped violently and touched the void. The vast stillness of the Buddha-source terrified him; he flailed wildly, touched the other presence in the void and clung tight.

Muchitsujo-rei had been attracted by the throbbing of a soul in turmoil. This much chaos in one person usually signaled a battle or some domestic upheaval that would generate the energies he fed on.

The tiny garden lost in the mountains of Kai, so remote it almost crossed the border to the otherworld, so still it rang with the presence of the Buddha-source, was so unexpected that Muchitsujo-rei nearly flew over it. The young man, so lost and vulnerable to suggestion, was nearly discounted. Then Kurumi's stinging slap sent him flying into the void to land in Muchitsujo-rei's embrace. The kami held him, drew on his turmoil and savored its flavor, then fed him back a taste of power, allowed him to absorb some of the puissance of the kami.

Shiniri eagerly pulled in the power, reveling in the feeling of incandescence. For a moment, he could do anything, then the power bled away, leaving him drained and anxious.

Muchitsujo-rei coiled around him, touching his exultation and fanning his anxiety. Properly groomed, there were uses for this little monk.


	40. Chapter 40 A Rising Tide

Chapter 40 - A Rising Tide 

As a great silver-frosted black dog, Inazuma-hime bounded from the sky to land in a meadow and shook herself briskly, very pleased with the progress of her adventure. She rolled in the grass for a time, enjoying the touch of something other than the stone floors and wood planks of the Lady's palace. How long would it be before she was missed? She normally napped at this time of the afternoon, under the over-solicitous orders of the Lady, who was micromanaging her pregnancy to an infuriating degree.

The princess and heir of the Storm Dog Clan lolled on her back for a while and considered; what else would a really naughty girl do? She should find something nasty and clinging to roll in.

Playing subservient to the Lady was wearing on Inazuma-hime's nerves. She found her self-discipline warring not only with her own fierce nature, but also with the increasingly frantic dictates of instinct. She should be finding a secluded den right now, some hidden place guarded by potent barriers where she could bear her litter. She had to play this game of Sesshomaru's on the razor's edge. The Lady was a formidable player, well aware of all possible subterfuges when it came to hiding litters. She couldn't play it too servile; the old bitch would get suspicious. Inazuma-hime played her young-and-inexperienced cards instead. Thus, the pretended break for freedom.

Jaken should be coming to check on her soon. She had to put more distance between herself and the palace if she wanted this to look believable. She rolled back to her feet and jumped back into the air, musing. Jaken, what an absurd little sprite. When Sesshomaru had bolted from the palace to chase Karimaru, he had left the little youkai behind. Jaken had then attached himself to Inazuma-hime, declaring it was his duty to attend to his Lord's mate until his Lord returned. The Lady allowed it and Inazuma-hime had no objections. Jaken was a fount of information; Inazuma-hime stroked his ego and commiserated with his grievances and learned all sorts of interesting details about her mate. Details she was sure the Lady did not know; details that would allow her to handle Sesshomaru when the time came.

She returned to the present when a large white dog leaped from the ground below her and surged up to keep pace with her.

"What happened?" Sesshomaru growled beside her, his hackles raised all down his back. "What went wrong?"

Inazuma-hime circled to land in a mountaintop meadow, Sesshomaru right beside her. She transformed to her beguiling human form, her moonstone eyes dancing with mischief.

"Nothing is wrong, my dear mate," she told him, laughing. "It's all part of the plan. I'm pretending to make a break for freedom to find my own den. If I have this figured right, she'll catch up with me in about an hour to drag me back."

Sesshomaru put on his human form and stood before her, frowning his displeasure. He looked across the skies, searching for signs of pursuit.

"Is that wise?" he asked sharply. "Mother doesn't tolerate insubordination. She won't be gentle."

"She won't do anything to harm the pups," Inazuma-hime said calmly.

"You shouldn't be giving her reasons to doubt you," he chided her. "She will wait until the pups are born, then have you removed."

"Don't be simple!" she snapped. "I can't afford to be too docile. That's what will get her suspicious, then the game will really be up."

Sesshomaru glared at her, thinking hard. She had a valid point, but still, she was playing it very close to the edge. All the same, he had very little say in these affairs. The bitch managed the preparations for challenge. He could comment, offer opinions, but in the end, it was her game.

"Very well, I expect you know best," he said, massaging the tightly knotted muscles at the base of her neck. "I'll trust your judgment." He took the opportunity to delicately sniff out her condition. Apart from the harsh tang of her stress, she was in excellent condition. She leaned back against him as some of the tension eased; she used the moment with her mate to build back her resolve for the next stage of the game. He ran his hands through the fur of her kimono, then moved across her swollen belly, feeling the pups pushing back against his hands.

"So, there are five of them?" he asked. "I'm getting one bitch and four dogs." It was an excellent mix for the purposes of a challenge, a daughter for a lieutenant and four warriors to stand beside him.

"I'm thinking six," she replied. "I'm getting hints of a fifth dog, but he's hard to pick out."

"What does Mother think?"

"She thinks five. I'm trying to find ways to hide the last one right now."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as he thought. It was always wise to have one pup hidden, in reserve.

"That may be difficult," he warned. "Mother will insist on being the midwife."

"I think I can stage a stillbirth," Inazuma-hime replied. "I have a puppet ready."

"Where are you planning to hide him?"

"You'll see him when it's time," she reminded him sharply. It was always thus; the bitch had control of the pups until she deemed they could profit from their father's training. Until then, he would not even see them. Sesshomaru could still remember the day he had met his own father. He had been so eager to show him what an efficient, ruthless warrior he was, just as Mother had taught him. He didn't realize until much later that it was not what Father was looking for. All these many years later, and he was only now beginning to understand his sire.

"You must let me know how I can assist you," he said, stroking her hair. "Anything I can do to make your work easier..."

"I have your Jaken," she replied. "I'll send him if I have need of you. Until then..." She pulled free and, as a black dog, leapt back into the air to continue her charade.

Sesshomaru watched her go, his feelings a mix of worries and frustrations. Until the bitch brought her pups out into the world, a dog had no place in their upbringing. Until then, what would his mate and his mother do to those pups?

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Timing is everything; Sesshomaru was seething from his encounter with his mate when InuYasha found him still standing in the mountaintop meadow. He was watching a retreating black cloud and a larger white cloud that was swirling from the West to intercept it.

"Yo, Sesshomaru! I have news!" InuYasha called as he jumped to a ledge on the cliff below, then up to the meadow itself. "You've been a hard one to find," he remarked as he reached the peak.

Sesshomaru looked at him coldly, waiting for his tidings.

"Karimaru turned up in the forest a while back," said InuYasha.

"Rin?"

"He won't release her, but..."

"Then you don't have news." Sesshomaru turned away, dismissing him, and returned to watching the clouds.

"Sesshomaru, he's accusing me of designs on the Sky Dog Clan. He says your mother is preparing a retaliation. You know as well as I do that I have no interest in the clan. How do I get them to back off?"

"Now that Mother knows you have a mate and children, there's not much you can do," Sesshomaru said dismissively, not even turning to look at his brother.

InuYasha grabbed Sesshomaru's shoulder and jerked him around. "Don't blow me off, Sesshomaru, this is important. My family's safety is a stake."

Sesshomaru glared at him, his eyes glowing with the icy arrogance that masked the rabid jealousy that had consumed him so often in the past.

"Your safety," Sesshomaru said softly. "If you want your safety, you just keep on living your little life in your little village and have nothing more to do with me,"

InuYasha's ears flattened. Oh, jeez, now what? He had sincerely believed they were past all that. "Damn it, Sesshomaru, I don't know what twisted your loincloth this time, but I have no designs on your clan or your inheritance. I'm just asking you to pass that on to your mother. She has nothing to worry about. Help me out here."

Sesshomaru continued to stare at him with that withering glare.

"Sesshomaru!"

Sesshomaru snapped around and took to the air.

"What about Rin?" InuYasha called after him.

"Rin is not your concern," Sesshomaru replied, continuing his ascent.

"What?! Damn you, Sesshomaru, I've done nothing to deserve this!" InuYasha bellowed after him. "Sesshomaru!"

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"Hey! Take it easy back there!" InuYasha grumbled, rubbing at the back of his scalp.

"What did you expect?" Kagome scolded mildly. "You've been gone for three days." She carefully extracted a length of bramble from his hair and laid it aside, then resumed combing the matted black mane.

InuYasha growled peevishly under his breath, then shifted impatiently. He had made it back home to her protection by midafternoon. Everything in the village was quiet and the evening had seen only the normal level of turmoil. Still, he was more irritable than he usually was in his human phase. Kagome continued combing and waited him out.

He blew out a hard breath and stared across the room with his chin on his hand.

"I knew it was too good to be true," he snorted.

Here it came.

"What was?" Kagome asked softly.

"Sesshomaru. He's back to being a complete asshole."

"Eh? What happened?"

"I finally caught up with him and tried to explain to him what was going on and he told me... Um, how did he put it? 'Go back to your little life in your little village and don't come anywhere near me.'"

Kagome blinked and ceased combing for a moment, shocked. "Wow. What did he say about Rin?"

"He basically told me to butt out. I guess now that we're not useful, he doesn't need to play nice anymore."

"That was really cold," Kagome exclaimed.

"Tell me about it."

"I meant you. Do you think there's something up with him?"

"How would I know?" InuYasha cried in exasperation. "He wouldn't exactly let me talk to him, now, would he?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kurumi looked out from his hut to where his young student sat meditating. Lately, Shiniri had done little but meditate, sitting folded up in a lotus position on a rock by the pool, with a rapturous expression on his face. Kurumi found it very disturbing; Shiniri looked more like he was in a lover's close embrace than touching the infinite, more sated in, than purged of, his passions. Something very wrong had happened when Shiniri had entered the void.

He needed guidance. Kurumi had very little in his tiny hut lost in the mountain; sufficient tools near the hearth to cook simple meals, blankets and straw pallets for beds, a shabby tea service showing its years of wear, and a small collection of scrolls. These scrolls were his greatest treasure. He had lived in a monastery for a time before setting out on his own to become a hermit and his job had been to copy the scrolls of the sages for other temples. Inevitably, some of them went awry, and he had corrected the errors and kept them for his own study.

He turned to them now to assist him in his thoughts. The Buddha-source, which touched and was all things, should surely be able to enlighten him. He returned to his hut, lit some incense, and retreated into his own meditation, opening himself to the infinite and slipping away from his selfness until the Buddha-source, itself, was what guided his hand. He reached out and took up a scroll, then wound it open until he felt the urge to stop. Holding himself in his communion with the Buddha-source, he saw highlighted in Yoka Daishi's "Song of Enlightenment"

_... Beings are most poorly endowed and difficult to control; Being further removed from the ancient Sage, they deeply cherish false views; The Evil One is gathering up his forces while the Dharma is weakened, and hatred is growing rampant; ..._

Ahh. Shiniri, in his folly and error, was attracting the attention of an evil spirit, perhaps one of the jealous gods. He was very vulnerable; he simply did not understand the nature of Nirvana and thought it was a refuge away from the difficulties of the world. He wanted to build walls around himself, or flee to a distant island, not lose himself in the greatness of what was. Perhaps if Kurumi better understood the nature of Shiniri's error, he could suggest a new path, help him to escape the Evil One.

Kurumi looked farther up the scroll, to another verse in the Song.

_Emptiness negatively defines a world of causality, All is then in utter confusion, with no orderliness in it, which surely invites evils all around; The same holds true when beings are clung to at the expense of Emptiness, For it is like throwing oneself into a flame, in order to avoid being drowned in the water._

Within his mind, the words of the Lankavatara Sutra chimed in agreement:

_They are those whose thoughts are entangled in the error of self, other, and both, entangled in the error of imagining being and non-being, assertion and refutation; and hell will be their final resort. Those whose minds are addicted to discrimination of the erroneous views as cherished by the philosophers, and those who are also given up to the realistic ideas of being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, will contradict the good Dharma, ending in the destruction of themselves and others._

It confirmed his opinion that the root of Shiniri's error lay in his desperate grasp on his selfhood, his need for barriers. He needed to learn to let go, to melt into the world until he was nothing and everything, both at the same time, until he shared in the magnificence of the infinite Buddha-source that accepted all things and was all things. But how to lead him? The quandary remained; it was not something that could be taught.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A vivid golden star drifted through the air over Rin's head, swirled and tumbled gently in a puff of wind, then circled to fall at her feet. She stooped to pick it up, then twirled the stem of the maple leaf pensively. It was the first of the fall leaves, one more reminder that the season was turning again. From the advent of spring, all through the summer, and now into fall, she had remained in the custody of Karimaru and his mate. She was lost deep in an unknown forest, housed in a small manor half-built into the side of a hill. She had the run of the building and the small attached garden. Beyond that, a barrier shimmered, separating the manor from the rest of the world in a great translucent ball.

Karimaru and his gentle brown mate treated her kindly enough, but Rin missed her own people. Even the thought of Jaken and his grumbling brought on a wave of nostalgia.

When Karimaru brought her here, he had told her that Sesshomaru would not be able to find her. She had not believed him then and she still did not believe him. Sesshomaru-sama always found what he was looking for. Was he no longer looking? Could it be that he no longer cared?

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_Emma-O was right_, mused the River Woman. _Muchitsujo-rei has lost sight of the big picture._

Tempers were running high among the dog youkai, creating virulently bubbling hot spots, and Muchitsujo-rei had an unusual interest in a certain very naive young Buddhist monk, but he appeared not to have noticed the decay in other of his holdings.

The River Woman was studying a region of steadily rushing rapids to the East. Here, four clans had been butting heads for decades, generating a steady upwelling of chaos. Now, the instability itself was unstable; it was teetering on the edge of resolution.

The Imagawa Clan had suffered a great blow when they had lost their leader, Yoshimoto, to Oda Nobunaga five years earlier. His son, Ujizane, was proving to be a lackluster leader, and both the Takeda and the Tokugawa clans smelled weakness. For the last couple of years, they had been sending small armed bands into Imagawa holdings, probing out the vulnerable spots.

Ujizane had recently lost his temper completely with Takeda Shingen and had halted all shipments of salt to Takeda lands in retaliation for the incursions. Now he waited for Shingen's people to force him to capitulate.

The River Woman smiled and let drop a small idea marker that prodded another neighbor into action.

Uesugi Kenshin was not one to let a golden opportunity go to waste. He sent salt to Kai and filled his coffers with Shingen's gold.

"Why would you strengthen our adversary so?" asked the officer in charge of Kenshin's trade mission as he signed off the permissions for the latest pack train. "You know he will be back at our gates soon enough."

"Perhaps," demurred Kenshin. "But right now, he is annoyed with Ujizane and beholden to me. By the time he remembers our rivalry, I will have spent his gold on the arms and armor I will use to fight him. I like very much having my adversaries pay for their own, er, inconveniences."


	41. Chapter 41 Noriko discovers the world

Chapter 41 - Noriko Discovers the World 

Kagome hitched the cooing Noriko farther up in her shawl until the tiny girl was settled comfortably on her hip. Noriko continued to teethe placidly on her rattle as Kagome gathered some empty bottles and a handful of wrapping cloths and tucked them into a pair of baskets. It was market day.

"Tsu-chan, Toushi-chan, we're going!" she called out the door as Shippo joined her on the porch. They walked down to the village, then, rather than risk certain catastrophe by bringing Tsuchiya and Toushi along, Kagome left them in the village square to play with the other children under Shippo's watchful eye.

Kagome worked her way across the square, past the gossiping women getting water at the well, and on to Miyako-san's garden, stopping a few times to chat with some acquaintances. Noriko's ears twitched and followed the sounds of clattering buckets and the women's conversations. As Kagome entered Miyako's garden, Noriko's nose twitched and she put her face out into the breeze to sample the rich smells of the garden. She did not, however, point at the passing butterflies or snatch at the colorful chrysanthemums along Miyako's fence. They made it through Aiko-san's shop without molesting a single bottle.

Something was wrong. At this age, both Tsuchiya and Toushi were the terrors of the village, with arms that could reach to points well beyond the laws of physics and biology. Kagome still could not figure out how they had managed to snatch some of their prizes. Even Neko, Sango and Miroku's youngest daughter, was keeping her parents hopping. Neko seemed to have a particular attraction to sharp pointy objects, like kitchen knives and skewers. She had already nearly put out Shinju's eye with an errant skewer.

Not so with Noriko. She was happy enough to play with whatever Kagome gave her, but she had yet to cry over the bright pretty on the shelf ten feet away.

Kagome wasn't sure quite what to make of it. Noriko was much smaller than either of the older children were at this age. Her appetite was meager compared to theirs. She responded to people, but never seemed to initiate anything. When Kagome mentioned it, though, other people laughed and asked her why she was begging after trouble. Wasn't she grateful for an easy child at last?

Kagome sighed, slipped her bottle of shoyu into her basket and made her way to Saito-san for fish.

"Ah, good morning, Kagome-sama!" Saito called cheerfully as she approached.

"Good morning, Saito-san," Kagome called back. "What's good today?"

"I have some mackerel packed in miso that just came in today," he replied. "Give me a moment and I'll unpack some for you."

The cooler autumn temperatures meant is was now possible to preserve and ship ocean fish inland. It was a time of the year everyone in the village looked forward to.

While Saito pried open a barrel of marinated fish and unloaded a portion, Kagome put Noriko down on a patch of grass, then started sorting her basket contents to make room for the fish. Noriko sat in the grass and waved her rattle until it jingled, then teethed on it some more.

Saito handed Kagome a package wrapped in oilpaper, then crouched down to tickle Noriko under the chin. "So, are we crawling yet?" he asked her.

Noriko started at the touch of his hand, then looked up at him and smiled.

"Not yet," Kagome remarked. "She seems happy to just sit."

"Now, how can you do that?" Saito teased. "There's a great big wonderful world out there just waiting for you to destroy it."

"Saito-san! Don't tell her that!" Kagome laughed. "It's hard enough keeping up with the damages from other two."

"Well, we wouldn't want her to feel left out, would we?" Saito grinned, then laughed at her conflicted expression.

When Kagome returned to the square to collect the rest of her brood, they weren't hard to find. She stood at one end of the square, looking through the busy activity of the villagers and listened. A loud roar of laughing alarm came from the far side of the square where a group of men and boys stood clustered. Kagome walked over to see what the ruckus was this time.

"An' an extra two coppers if he hits someone on th' head," said Kurato as Miroku took his money and marked down the amendment to his bet.

"Last call for bets!" cried Miroku, looking around at the crowd.

The men waved their hands to say they were done.

"Hi, Mama! Hi, Nariko!" Toushi pulled free from the edge of the crowd and ran to meet her. "What did you get?" she asked peering into the basket.

"It's Noriko," Kagome corrected absently. "What's going on?"

"Shippo's showing Tsu-chan how to spin a top," Toushi replied.

"Oh, dear," Kagome muttered anxiously. She looked over the heads of a pair of boys and watched Shippo finish winding the string on the top and hand it to Tsuchiya with further instructions.

"You might want to stand back, Kagome-sama," laughed Eiichi from the sidelines. "His aim is pretty shaky."

That was an understatement, Kagome thought as she watched the top lash out and bounce off the back of Masao's head.

The crowd roared again. "That'll teach you to look away," cried some wag in the crowd. Masao grinned sheepishly and tossed the top back to Shippo.

Kurato said to Miroku, "I'll be taking me money now." Other winners crowded close to collect their winnings. Miroku did not look like fortune was favoring him right then.

"Mama, can I stay?" Tsuchiya asked while Shippo rewound the top.

"Kagome-sama, you have to let him stay," Miroku added. "He's got to get it right soon. I need to win my money back."

"Miroku-sama, you should know better," Kagome said sternly.

Miroku muttered something about never imagining it could take anyone this long to figure out how to cast a top.

"He's only five, Miroku-sama," Kagome reminded him. "Aren't you expecting a bit much?"

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku was beginning to look desperate.

"Very well, you can have him until lunchtime," she decided.

"Me too?" Toushi pleaded.

"Yes, you too."

"Yay! Bye, Mama. Bye-bye Nariko!" Toushi waved and disappeared back into the crowd.

Noriko looked vaguely in the direction of Toushi's voice, then went back to fiddling with her rattle. Kagome sighed, watching her younger daughter. It just didn't seem right that the girl never watched what was going on around her. Something serious must be wrong. She decided to take her to a pediatrician in modern times for an assessment.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mama heard the door clatter open as she worked in the kitchen. She looked up at the clock, slightly worried that she had gotten behind schedule and that Sota's study group had arrived. It was still early, so she headed toward the living room to see who it was.

She had just reached the door when Tsuchiya darted across the room and launched himself into her arms, landing with a big hug and squealing, "Grandma!" The rest of Kagome's family came in behind him, all dressed for modern times.

"Hello, Tsuchiya," Mama said, hugging him back. "Back so soon?" It had only been two weeks since the last visit.

InuYasha followed his son into the kitchen, holding three bags over one shoulder, and carrying a sleepy-eyed Toushi. Kagome trailed behind, holding Noriko and a bag of her own.

"Say 'Hi' to Grandma," InuYasha said, leaning over to let Toushi kiss her grandmother. He accepted a hug himself, which pleased Mama greatly.

"I have that appointment to have Noriko checked over today," Kagome reminded Mama.

"Oh, that's right," Mama said. "Why don't you get settled? Sota has a study group coming over in a few minutes."

"OK," Kagome said, "we'll head upstairs. I think we can stay out of the way."

InuYasha wiggled loose two of the bags and directed Tsuchiya to take them up to their room. The boy darted out with the bags while Kagome related her worries about Noriko and Mama finished her snack tray. Noriko was in her human phase, which was why Kagome had scheduled the visit for today.

Mama leaned over and cooed to Noriko, "Who's Grandma's pretty little girl?"

Noriko grinned and reached out to her grandmother.

"She's responsive enough," Mama remarked. " She really doesn't seem all that different from any other baby I've seen, excepting, of course, Tsuchiya and Toushi. Those two are a rule unto themselves."

"Still, Mama, I'll feel better after I've had her checked," Kagome said, leaving the kitchen.

"Surely you're due for an average baby at some point," Mama said.

"Well, maybe. Let's see what the doctor says," Kagome replied as she climbed the stairs, InuYasha following with Toushi still curled sleepily in his arms.

They reached the landing and had just started toward their room when the door clattered open downstairs and the study group made their way in, chattering.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Higurashi," the group chorused as they trooped into the house.

"Good afternoon, everyone," answered Mama. "Why don't you all settle down at the table here in the living room? Sota, if you would help me with the trays?"

"Sure, Mama," Sota said, putting down his books and entering the kitchen. He came out a moment later with a tray full of treats.

There really had been some warning, Sota reflected later, although he wasn't sure what he could have done with it.

A door banged shut upstairs and he heard an alarmed Kagome cry, "InuYasha!"

"Damn!" InuYasha snarled, frustrated; there was the sound of scrambling feet, then Sota saw his nephew leap onto the bannister and launch himself into space, InuYasha in hot pursuit. InuYasha missed his grab at his son and went tumbling over the bannister, a split-second before Tsuchiya crashed into Sota in what had been meant as a huge hug. Sota went sprawling across the floor; the tray he was carrying flew across the room, scattering its contents all over the guests.

InuYasha must have tucked into a roll on the way down, since he was on his feet when Sota looked up, a wide-eyed Toushi still clutched in his arms. The girl giggled and said, "Do it again, Papa!"

Totally flustered, InuYasha looked at Toushi. "Ummm..."

Kagome came to the rescue, trotting down the stairs and taking her, saying, "You can play with Papa after your nap."

While Toushi pouted about that, Kagome turned to Sota and said, "Oh, Sota, we're so sorry. Are you all right?"

Sota, still flat on the floor with Tsuchiya sitting on top of him, looked at his sister wryly. "I think I'll live. You know, I'm becoming more and more convinced you should have named him 'Tsunami'."

"Why?" Tsuchiya asked curiously, peering down at his uncle.

"Because you are an irresistible force of nature," Sota replied.

"Cool!" Tsuchiya was impressed.

"Not cool," contradicted InuYasha, his eyes drilling fiercely into his son.

"Oh," Tsuchiya said sheepishly. He eyed his father warily.

"You are going to apologize to Uncle Sota and his friends."

Tsuchiya nodded.

"You are going to clean up the mess."

Tsuchiya looked at the room in dismay. "Oh, man."

"Without complaining."

"Yes, sir."

"You are going to help Grandma make a new tray."

"Yes."

"Get to it." InuYasha monitored Tsuchiya through his apology, then went into the kitchen to make sure Mama didn't let him off easily.

Sota's friends took pity on Tsuchiya as he cleaned the room under his father's watchful eye, helping him with what was in their reach as he went around the room. A short time later, the study session regrouped and got back to business. Tsuchiya slunk into the kitchen to do the third part of his assignment. InuYasha retired upstairs to help Kagome settle Toushi. Kagome left soon afterward to take Noriko to her appointment.

About half an hour later, Tsuchiya came out of the kitchen with a fresh tray of snacks, which he carefully placed in a bare spot on the table. His spirits still seemed a bit squashed.

"Hey, Tsuchiya," Sota said. "We've been talking. If you can stay a good boy through the end of the study session, we'll all take you to the park for some soccer. You and me against everyone else."

Tsuchiya perked up instantly. "Really?"

"Yeah, what do you say?"

"Great!" Tsuchiya was now buzzing with barely contained excitement.

"Remember," Sota admonished, "when we're done."

"Yeah." Tsuchiya fidgeted a bit and asked, "How long?"

Sota looked at his books and said, "I figure about an hour, maybe an hour and a half."

Tsuchiya bit his lip, considering. It was an awfully long time for him to manage to stay out of trouble, but soccer!

InuYasha came to the landing to check on his son.

"Is he bothering you?" he asked.

"No, not at all," Sota replied. "I just told him if he can keep it together for about an hour and a half, we'll take him to the park and run him out."

InuYasha considered it briefly. "I think we can manage that."

Tsuchiya looked up hopefully. He was apparently back in his father's good graces. InuYasha came downstairs, collected Tsuchiya, and escorted him out the door.

Sota's study group actually did get some work done, although it seemed like his friends were spending most of their time ribbing him about his overly exuberant nephew.

"Well, that's what happens when you have demons in the family," Sota shrugged.

Everyone burst out laughing.

"That's a good one," Seige snorted.

"Yeah, I'll bet that explains his dad's appearance too," laughed Yasuo.

"Yup," Sota said blandly.

The study group rolled their eyes.

"Sota, you are so out there," said Chiyo, one of the two girls in the group.

Sota shrugged again without comment.

They were finished and packing their books when the door opened and Tsuchiya peeked into the room. His face lit up when he saw the books going away.

"All right!" he exclaimed, bouncing into the room and standing in front of his uncle, eager-eyed and barely able to stay in his skin.

"Oh, Tsuchiya!" Sota said, feigning great surprise. "Did you want something?"

The boy whimpered slightly and continued to stand in front of Sota, quivering, with huge pleading eyes.

Sota scratched his head and looked at the ceiling. "Wait a minute, it's starting to come back. We were going to take you out for ... for ... um ... new shoes!"

"Uncle Sota!" Tsuchiya wailed, outraged and frustrated by the teasing.

"That wasn't it?" Sota asked.

Tsuchiya shook his head vehemently.

"Ice cream?"

Tsuchiya looked tempted for a moment, then shook his head again.

"I'll have to check how you were with your dad."

Tsuchiya looked almost panic-stricken. Sota looked at InuYasha, who was now leaning against the door frame watching the scene. "Well?"

"He may go."

"OK. I guess that leaves finding the ball."

Tsuchiya shot out of the room and up the stairs. He was back momentarily with the ball under his arm.

"All right, everyone, let's get some exercise!" Sota led the way out the door, admonishing Tsuchiya, "Now, this time, don't pop the ball. The game is too short when that happens."

"Yeah." Tsuchiya looked distressed at the thought.

The park was only a few blocks away. It had a good-sized stretch of lawn available for games and there were not very many people on it.

"Oh, good," Sota said, "we lucked out."

The group picked a tree for a goal (any time the ball bounced off the tree was a score) then split up, Sota and Tsuchiya on one side and his seven friends on the other.

"Hey Sota, when did you get such a high opinion of yourself as a soccer player?" Yasuo called.

"It's not me, it's him! You won't believe how fast he is!" Sota called back. He tossed the ball to the opposing team, waited until they had control of it, then told Tsuchiya, "Let's get them!"

Tsuchiya shot out into the middle of the opposing team, danced between their legs and neatly stole the ball. Sota positioned himself near the goal tree and whistled. Tsuchiya snaked his way out of the pack and passed the ball to Sota who kicked it against the tree for a score.

The opposing team was inclined to take the score as a fluke until the third time Tsuchiya and Sota pulled it off. Then they got down to the serious business of trying to keep the ball away from Tsuchiya. They soon found it wasn't easy and required all the teamwork they could muster to keep the ball in their camp. Like Sota had said, Tsuchiya was unbelievably fast and far more agile than any of them. They lasted about an hour and a half before the major activity on the opposing team was panting and puffing. Several of Sota's friends collapsed onto the grass under the goal tree. The rest joined them and watched Tsuchiya play with the ball by himself.

"No one should be allowed to have that much energy," one of the prone boys moaned.

"I can't remember the last time I had to run that hard," another panted.

"I am definitely going to feel this tomorrow."

"How do his parents keep up with him?"

Sota laughed. "They don't. About every four to six weeks they come to our house and sleep for three days straight."

"What are the girls like?" Chiyo asked.

"Toushi's a little ball of energy too, but nowhere on his level. She actually sleeps at night. Noriko is pretty normal."

Everyone groaned at the thought of Tsuchiya not sleeping.

"So you're telling me that after they had that boy, they had two other kids? Your sister is crazy!"

"I suppose, but she seems to be thriving on it."

Sota looked over at Tsuchiya, who was still playing tricks with the ball, and called, "Hey, Tsuchiya, it looks like you've run them all into the ground. What do you say we all get an ice cream and head back to the house?"

Tsuchiya looked briefly disappointed, but the bribe of an ice cream was agreeable, so he picked up the ball and trotted over to join the rest of the group. Moaning and limping, the study group clambered to their feet and headed down the street to the ice cream shop. Ice cream revived them and they returned to the shrine in high spirits, laughing wonderingly at how the little squirt had trounced them all.

Shortly before they reached the shrine, they saw Kagome and Noriko returning from the doctor's appointment. Noriko was sporting a pair of thick glasses and was looking around at the world in wide-eyed wonder. Tsuchiya darted away to greet his mother and tell her about his day. Everyone met at the base of the steps to the shrine. As Tsuchiya ran up the steps with the ball, Kagome looked them over briefly and asked, "So are you still alive?"

She listened drolly to the chorus of answering moans, then eyed Sota as they started up the steps and said, "You really should be nicer to your friends, otouto-chan."

Sota chuckled and replied, "You should be thanking me. If we're lucky, we'll get a few hours of sleep out of him tonight."

Kagome looked doubtful. "Maybe. He's still looking pretty peppy."

"Ah, but we just put an ice cream into him. When that wears off, we'll get a little sugar crash, all that exercise and one each sleeping Tsuchiya."

"So that's today's theory," Kagome laughed. "OK, I'm game. Let's see what happens."

Sota pointed at Noriko and asked, "Glasses?"

"Yeah," Kagome said happily. "The only thing wrong with her is she's really nearsighted."

They arrived at the house and were just about to open the door when they heard a loud angry screech followed by the sounds of an energetic scuffle.

Kagome sighed. "That didn't take long."

She opened the door to see InuYasha pulling the combatants apart, looking thoroughly annoyed. He was holding them at arm's length by their shirt-collars. Both were bleeding from some nasty scratches and each was growling and struggling to take another swipe at the other. InuYasha glanced up and said, "Which one do you want?"

Kagome put down Noriko and said, "I'll take Tsuchiya. What happened this time?"

InuYasha shot a disgusted look at his son and replied, "Oh, the usual. Toushi was quietly building with the blocks and Tsuchiya made a point of kicking it over on his way in the door."

Kagome marched over to Tsuchiya, grabbed a handful of hair and steered him toward the kitchen, saying grimly, "We're going to talk."

InuYasha disappeared into the bathroom with the still snarling Toushi.

The wide-eyed study group gathered their books and retreated back outdoors. Evidently it didn't get quite that exciting in their homes, although manners dictated that nobody could comment. Sota went out with them to see them off.

"So, whose house are we at next week?" he asked. The flustered study group blinked a moment while they pulled their minds back to business. Finally, someone piped up with, "It's my turn."

"OK, see you there. Midterms are coming up, so we'd better put in a review."

"Uh, yeah." The dazed study group still didn't have their minds on school. Sota could see there was going to be quite the round of gossip circulating about his family. Kagome's people certainly did add some excitement to his life.

He went back indoors. Kagome was still chewing out Tsuchiya in the kitchen as she washed off his already healing scratches. InuYasha came out of the bathroom with the cleaned-up Toushi, commiserating with her on having a mean big brother. Toushi had become distracted enough from the latest episode to ask InuYasha how mean his brother was. InuYasha settled her on his lap and told her a couple of stories of how he had been bullied by his brother.

Tsuchiya and Kagome finally emerged from the kitchen, Tsuchiya looking thoroughly chastened. He quietly took Sota's ball upstairs and remained there a while to lick his wounds.

Kagome picked up Noriko and sat down next to InuYasha.

"The doctor says Noriko is perfectly healthy," she reported. "The only thing he found wrong was her vision. He says she's nearsighted and needs glasses. That explained why she never went exploring. She never saw anything well enough to get curious."

InuYasha took the glasses off Noriko's nose, ignoring Noriko's squeal of protest, and peered through them. "Everything is fuzzy. How is that supposed to help?"

"That's because your eyes are fine and don't need to be corrected," Kagome said. "Noriko sees things blurry right now and the glasses will make it clearer for her."

InuYasha frowned, concentrating. "So you're saying that she sees everything blurry and she needs to wear something that makes things blurry to see clearly."

"Yes."

"Right. How does that work?"

"Gagh!" Kagome said, putting her face in her hands.

"The lenses bend the light going into Noriko's eyes to fit the lineup she needs to see clearly," Sota explained.

"Bend the light," InuYasha repeated skeptically.

"Yeah," Sota confirmed.

"What kind of magic do you use to bend light?" InuYasha asked.

"It's not magic. It's the shape of the lenses, mostly, that makes them work," Sota replied.

"So it makes a difference if it's round or oval or ...?"

"Not that dimension. The important part is where it's thin and where it's thick."

InuYasha looked even more confused. "I don't get it."

"You don't have to," Sota said. "You won't be the one making the glasses."

InuYasha turned the glasses around in his hands a few more times, peering at them from different angles. "Hmph. It still sounds like magic to me," he grumbled under his breath, then put them back on the fussing Noriko's nose.

Noriko stopped fussing and looked back out at the world she had never really seen before.


	42. Chapter 42 The Battle for Shiniri's Soul

Chapter 42 - The Battle For Shiniri's Soul 

Shiniri rose from his morning meditation thrumming with rapture. Every nerve in his body seemed alive and tingling, he was not surprised to find his skin radiant with a soft silver glow. He lifted a hand and watched in wonder as a blue-white spark formed between his thumb and forefinger; it grew larger and brighter as he spread his fingers, then vanished with a small snap.

His clothes crackled softly as he stood and half-walked, half-floated to the alter and gently rang the bell. The sound rippled through the air in coiling golden waves, shimmering like watered silk and causing all the objects in the room to glow briefly in a golden vibration as the sound touched them.

Smiling gently, he lit a stick of incense and inhaled the sweet smoke. The crackling feeling of latent power increased and he held his hand over the smoking tip of the incense stick. The smoke gathered around his hand, swirling in lazy curls and eddies through his fingers. He drew his hand up, closing his fingers together as he went, drawing the smoke along behind him.

Kurumi found him a short time later, lost in forming the smoke into the image of the pine tree that overlooked the pond in the garden.

"Shiniri-kun," Kurumi asked cautiously, "what is this that you are doing?"

Shiniri broke off his tuneless humming and looked at Kurumi with over-bright eyes.

"Look, sensei. The smoke follows my hands." He pulled another branch into shape with his fingers, then splayed his hand suddenly, causing a spray of needles to appear along the branch.

"So I see. How is it that you come to do this?"

"The meditation, sensei. It's finally working. I can see sound and touch odors. The bell rings with a golden light when struck. Just like when you asked what color the wind sighing through the pine branches is. I can answer that now."

"Can you?" The question was meant only as a challenge to habitual perceptions.

"Yes, sensei, it is silvery-green."

"Indeed." Kurumi grappled furiously with the story. In many ways, this mimicked what he had been taught, that perception as ordinarily experienced was limiting to the point of misinforming the perceiver, but his gut said no, this was _wrong_. All his word-teaching was hazy metaphors that reached toward the concept of release to observe things as they actually were. It was nonsensical to taste a color or see a sound.

Shiniri's challenge loomed in front of him; was Shiniri truly tapping the Buddha-source deeply or was he lost from the path? How could Kurumi tell?

Late into the evening, Kurumi sat watching the smoke rise from the incense on the alter, his mind in turmoil. The smoke drifted before him in lazy coils, taunting him with the memory of the smoke tree from earlier.

Oh, Buddha-sensei, it is impossible! A man cannot manipulate smoke! Did I truly see it, that quivering bonsai of smoke smelling of pine resin? How did such a thing come to be in this world?

It hovered in his mind, that anomalous construct of smoke that swayed in the breeze but did not disperse. It was contrary to natural sense, it could not be real. But nothing is real. All is illusion. How to resolve this conundrum?

[- _Blind to the very core! Do not say this monk had failing eyesight._ -]

The calm of meditation would not come. He was much too agitated. Around and around and around, his thoughts flitted like moths, always to return and burn their wings on the flame of that memory.

[- _This monk's staff is broken_. -]

Stop.

His thoughts froze, crystalline in the void.

Breathe.

In ... out ... one. In ... out ... two.

Every time his thoughts twitched, he gently calmed them and slid them away.

Now, feel the air slide into the lungs, the heart thump in the chest. Hear the leaves rustle outside and feel the soft breeze cool on the cheeks and arms. See the smoke of the incense tumble slightly as the breeze tickles it too. Smell the sweetness of the incense, the tang of the rain-washed stones in the garden. Breathe.

What is the error?

Thinking. He was over-thinking it. It is what it is. Everything starts and stops there. There is no contradiction without discrimination. There is not real and unreal. All is illusion. Accept what is.

[- _As the wind blows, the grass bends._ -]

Very well. He saw what he saw. What of it? Nothing. And Everything. Kurumi suspended thought and watched the smoke tree again in his memory. This was a blatant brush with the supernatural. Some creature from outside the normal planes of reality was manifesting itself. He still did not know its nature or intent.

It might be merely playing, or exploring, but Kurumi's gut said no, this creature was malevolent. Gut wisdom was not to be lightly discounted; it knew what it knew even when the reasons were hidden. Did he have the means to dispel this devil? His stomach swooped with dismay; perhaps not. Still, his sense of rightness required some action. He could not let the fragile soul of his young student be used so without objecting somehow.

He, himself, was a fragile old man, long attenuated by a life of contemplation and austerity. He had, however, a lifetime of studying the ways of Zen, the constant immersion of his consciousness in the here-and-now, and from this he had learned that if he moved decisively when the time was right, he, this weakest of beings, might achieve wonders.

So. He would do this thing. He would confront and dispel this devil.

Such things required preparation. He ordered his mind and considered. The creak of his joints suggested a moving meditation; he rose and moved through a simple training kata of his youth. Yes, his back was stiff and his legs betrayed weakness. The flow of his ki was impaired. He was not ready.

Muchitsujo-rei released his hold on the young monk and soared into the realm of the kami. He had drained himself more than expected working on Shiniri's seduction and needed to replenish his energies. It was also past time to monitor the game-field; who knew what subtle changes to the currents had been effected while he was gone.

He checked first on the anchors. The recovery of his opponent's anchor still rankled. That strike had come so close to obliterating it altogether, but here it was, fully reformed and alive with circulating energies that had not been there before Sumio's assault. Another small icon prowled the perimeter of the anchor, sharing space with the cloud and the dragonet; this one appeared to be a serpent.

Cursing, Muchitsujo-rei looked at his other holdings. That border dispute between the Imagawa and Takeda clans had escalated. Imagawa's province, Suruga, was a seething pool of doubt, anxiety and thwarted ambitions. Civil unrest and minor treason ran unchecked as the incompetent Imagawa clan chief, Ujizane, slowly lost the loyalty of his vassals.

Muchitsujo-rei followed the trace of a bubbling current of fear to the private audience chamber of Imagawa Ujizane. Ujizane sat on a cushion on a dais, facing his general, Eto Hisashi, who knelt deferentially before him. With exquisitely precise courtesy and an unreadable mien, Hisashi said,

"My lord, I have been summoned home. My wife writes that my honored mother is near death and she needs me there to ensure my stepfather does not disinherit us. I humbly ask your permission to return home to secure the estate."

Ujizane sat, thinking carefully. He had heard far too many of these stories lately: "My father is ill," "My estate is beset with brigands," "My son is missing," as one by one, his officers and vassals slipped away. Still, Hisashi was in a precarious situation. Ujizane required his presence in court, which had left his estate without a strong man in control. Until now, the estate had been managed by Hisashi's formidable mother, and his efficient, but mild-tempered, wife.

If Ujizane wanted to retain Hisashi's estate, he had to let him go. If he wanted to retain Hisashi himself, he had to keep him here. He could not afford to lose either. Stomach churning with apprehension, he finally replied, "Very well, you have leave to go. I will arrange for one hundred men to go with you to support you." Among those men, he would place a few trusted spies to report if Hisashi stayed longer than required or met with those he shouldn't.

"My lord is gracious," Hisashi said, prostrating himself.

"You may go."

Hisashi rose quickly, bowed, and backed out of the room.

"Sensei, are you dancing?"

Kurumi paused in the middle of his kata and looked at Shiniri. The young man was alone; the devil was not about just now.

"You could call it that," Kurumi replied. "It is a kata for centering and balance." Perhaps if he taught these things to Shiniri when the devil was absent, Shiniri could become stronger in his own right and help to cast the devil out.

"Emptiness, centering, stillness! I just don't get it." Shiniri complained. "How do you do anything when you just sit still?"

Kurumi considered the figure of Shiniri standing before him. Short, dark and sturdily muscled, he came from a life of hard labor.

"You were a farmer at one time, were you not?"

Shiniri bristled slightly and glared back sullenly. "Yeah. So?"

"So you are accustomed to long tedious labors. Planting, weeding, threshing..."

Shiniri nodded, though he could not see where this was leading.

"Did you ever, in the midst of your labors, find a time when everything flowed smoothly and without effort? When you knew the blow of your flail would land exactly right and flow into the next lift and swing so you could go on forever?"

Shiniri thought for a time, remembering his life before. There had been times like that, when the swings and blows of the flail melded perfectly with the threshing chants and he had been lifted away from his aching back and blistered hands into a place of whirling motion, himself at the center, untouched by it all.

Kurumi saw the comprehension in Shiniri's eyes. "When you are there, you have found your center, you are in balance. You have become one with the stillness at the heart of the universe. The katas and the meditations are training to help you find that center in any circumstance."

[- _So says the Buddha, "I have not attained anything in my attainment of Enlightenment."_ -]

Realization flooded through Shiniri, followed by a sense of betrayal. Is that all there was to this? It was so ... simple. Why, then, were there all the trappings and ceremony built around it? Shiniri had lost count of all the forms of meditation he had tried. He still couldn't make the least sense of all the sutras he had heard recited. It just could not be that all of that training, all those oblique lectures, led to ... this.

"But, sensei, that's so simple! Why do we need to spend all that time meditating on the sound of a sunrise or the touch of moonlight? What do all those lectures about the reflection of the moon have to do with anything?"

"We all touch that center at some point in our lives. The difficulty lies in touching it at all times. Can you honestly say you could find your center when confronted with a bloody-sworded samurai on the field of a battle? Most people become so locked on the sword they never see their deaths coming."

The other memories flooded Shiniri's mind, the memories of that fearful night his village was raided and burned, when the bloody swords of the samurai had been so luridly lit by the flames of the burning houses and the yells of the soldiers had rung in eerie discord with the wails of the villagers and the roar of the flames. The entire scene was a centerless mass of chaos. He drew a shuddering breath and said, "There is no center possible in a place like that."

"There is," Kurumi said serenely, contradicting Shiniri. " You carry it with you always. We are all one with the Buddha-source. We just easily forget."

Muchitsujo-rei traced another current that flowed from Toutoumi province into the Mikawa border. Imagawa Ujizane's cousin met with Tokugawa Ieyasu in a border castle in Mikawa to try to negotiate an alliance that would allow Ujizane to defeat the Takeda clan.

"I had thought our relationship meant more to you than this," Imagawa said bitterly. "Your wife is my sister."

"I have my own clan's welfare to consider," Ieyasu replied. "I cannot hold Mikawa while also backing Imagawa's interests."

"If Imagawa falls, Takeda will be free to take you next. Are you prepared for that?"

"Mmm. I shall give your proposal due consideration."

"When will I hear from you?" the Imagawa envoy pressed.

"When you do." Ieyasu nodded curtly, dismissing the envoy.

The Imagawa envoy stood outside the audience room, seething. Damn him! Nothing could move Ieyasu before he chose to move. The doorman beckoned him to escort him back to his chamber. On the way, they passed a small group of officers conversing quietly. The officers fell silent as the envoy passed. He knew every one of them, ex-officers of Imagawa that had quietly vanished over the last few months. Just how many of the Imagawa vassals had made their way here? Ujizane must learn of this.

_How lovely._ Imagawa was primed for a meltdown. Tokugawa, Takeda, perhaps even Hojo would soon be marching here to fight over the scraps. Chaos of this order would serve Muchitsju-rei's needs well.

Muchitsujo-rei circled over Toutoumi province, absorbing the fears of its vassals, then sailed northwest to the mountains of the Sky Dogs.

As Muchitsujo-rei departed, the River Woman placed markers near Tokugawa Ieyasu, calming his ambitions. _Patience. Let it unravel some more before you move. Why get an uneasy ally when you can win the whole prize?_

Shiniri was now afflicted with even more doubts and confusion. The old man had said that when he had felt that crackling power and played with the smoke, he was being used by a devil, an ashura. Ashura were spirits driven by their powerful passions and they led people away from salvation by feeding their passions and toying with their needs. Enlightenment, however, would lift him beyond his desires, take away the pain of his passions by putting him in balance, and calm his fears in the stillness of the center.

But it was so hard. His brief touches with Enlightenment had been blissful, but chimeric. Even now, as he meditated and practiced katas, he could not hold the feeling of balance for more than a few seconds before it eluded him again.

There had been such wonder in his encounter with the devil. It was beautiful, exhilarating, even magical, experiencing the world through his expanded senses and he longed to do it again. All those vivid sensations that stimulated him in a way he had never felt before; all that power at his command, just waiting for him to wield it - how could anyone assail him when he was so powerful? He could do anything. And it was so easy.

"_It's like anything else. When something is too easy, there's something wrong. But the fish don't know that. The fish just sees that fat grub floating in front of his nose and he never notices the hook buried in it until it's too late._"

That was Father's rough wisdom, passed on during a summer evening spent fishing after chores were done. Shiniri had just won a lot of money from a disreputable trader, and his father was concerned about it. A fish struck just after Father spoke and he pulled it in. He held up the struggling fish, appraising it. "Eh, enough for dinner for us all." He had then looked sharply at his son. "Do you want to be that trader's 'dinner'? Best get out while you can."

Father... He was dead now, killed in the raid. All that wisdom had proven useless in the face of that violence. Shiniri sighed. No matter how far he ran, the violence followed, ravenous and mad. All he wanted was a quiet life. Why was it so hard to find?

A great maelstrom, menacing and dark, swirled over the Sky Dog's mountain, centered over the palace and fueled by the Lady's paranoia. Muchitsujo-rei rode the maelstrom, absorbing its dark passion, then plunged down into the palace to savor the atmosphere in the nexus.

Tension quivered in the hallways as the servants made themselves inconspicuous in the face of the Lady's wrath. A small, but stubborn, ogre had somehow found its way into the halls of the inner palace; subduing the ogre had taken the attentions of much of the guard and the Lady herself. Soon afterward, a maid reported she had seen Inazuma-hime leap the garden wall and plunge down the mountain into the forest in another escape attempt. She had been caught soon afterward and dragged back to huddle, crying and cringing, at the Lady's feet.

"You thought you were clever, did you?" The Lady snarled. "You thought I would be too busy to find you?"

"No! No! It's not like that!" Inazuma cried.

"Oh? I think it's just like that," the Lady snapped. "Listen well, my dear. There is nothing you can think of that I haven't already considered. If you give me one more minute of trouble, I will have you chained to the nursery."

"I'll be good, I'll be good," Inazuma wailed, trembling fearfully, belly flat to the ground.

"Mind that you are," the Lady growled, then stalked out of the room. Pathetic! The girl had no spark at all. Was this the best she could come up with? And that disgusting display of abject submission! The Lady fervently hoped the pups, at least, had more backbone than that.

Muchitsujo-rei had watched with satisfaction as the black-furred princess of the Storm Dogs was brought to heel by the Lady. Truly, Kouri-sama had things well in hand. Her new pack would arrive soon and she would waste no time indoctrinating them. It was going better than he had ever imagined.

The guards escorted Inazuma-hime back to her suite and sealed her in. Inazuma-hime curled up, ostensibly weeping over her cruel fate, and laughed softly to herself. The Lady's disgust was palpable; her contempt would soon make her careless. Inazuma's network was now spread across the entire palace; there was very little she didn't know about within moments of it happening. Soon enough... She paused, stiffening. Something was in the room, gloating; she couldn't see it but she could smell it. A ... kami? She was familiar enough with kami; the Storm Dogs often ran in hunts with Susanoo when the typhoon season ran wild across the land. She sniffed again; she was not familiar with this kami. Who was he and what was he doing here?

"_Good girl_," the River Woman murmured. She had slid in a marker some time ago that opened the senses of the Dogs to the incursion of kami. So far, only Inazuma-hime had noticed Muchitsujo-rei. The Lady, unfortunately, remained oblivious to anything outside her preparations for challenge, and her staff remained focused on saving their hides by anticipating her needs. The River Woman had hoped the detection of Muchitsujo-rei would unravel his meddling, but luck was not running with her.

Shiniri sat in meditation near the hearth, watching the flames lick lazily at the wood beneath the kettle. The air puffed white before him with the slow rhythm of his breathing. A branch outside rattled against the eaves in the breeze. Suspended in the island of his serenity, he watched the flames acquire an unnatural brightness in their borders. A log in the fire popped loudly with a shooting of golden sparks and the sound ricocheted across the room. Shiniri could feel the vibrations ripple through his body as the waves washed over him.

"Sensei...," he said softly.

Across from him, Kurumi's eyes opened alertly from their half-closed meditation posture. Kurumi looked around carefully, his eyes darting around the room, and his other senses stretched out to learn what was there.

"It's back," Kurumi murmured. He had hoped this ashura had moved on, but knew they would not be so fortunate. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to feel, smell or taste, but still, the sense of another personality in the room was overwhelming.

Muchitsujo-rei paused, taking in the changes since he had been here last. The old man's line to the Void had grown stronger and brighter and his limbs were now glowing with the ki that flowed smoothly through him. The young man had passed through a threshold of understanding; the rampant chaos that had characterized his soul was resolving to a sense of purpose and a tenuous web was reaching out into the void reaching for the Buddha-source. He had made his first step toward real enlightenment. The kami had to act now, while the young man's connection was still new and fragile.

"_So cold_," Muchitsujo-rei crooned softly. "_You can make it better. Call the fire to you._"

Shiniri became aware of how intensely cold he was. He shivered violently and reached out a stiff hand to touch the coals.

"Shiniri-kun, what do you do?" Kurumi asked quietly.

"It's ... so cold. I'll freeze."

"It's no colder than it was a moment ago."

"I can't feel my fingers. I just want to warm my hands."

"The ashura is tempting you. Be strong. I will make tea."

Tea. The hot mug would warm his hands, the bitter infusion would bring clarity to his thoughts. Shiniri focused on the simple serenity of Tea and his shivering abated.

Kurumi set two mugs before him and rinsed each with a dipperful of hot water from the kettle. He only had a common peasant's tea, cut with toasted rice, not the matcha of a formal tea ceremony as practiced in the monasteries, but the traditional form was only a framework. Tea's essence lay in mindfulness. With great precision and economy of motion, he put a scoop of tea in each mug and ladled in a dipperful of water. With both hands, he passed one mug over to Shiniri's waiting hands, then he took up the other mug for himself. Both of them took a minute to breathe the steam as the tea steeped, then they each took a sip, rolling the tea carefully across their tongues before swallowing. Tea filled the entirely of the Universe; there was room for nothing more.

Annoyed, Muchitsujo-rei circled Shiniri, seeking another avenue into the young monk's mind, but he was blocked on all fronts.

Kurumi took another sip, then opened his mind beyond Tea to observe their visitor. He followed the path of a point of raw emotion, hungry, impatient and selfish, as it circled around Shiniri in great frustration. The spirit was clearly an ashura, driven by its passions and heedless of the greater world. Kurumi mentally sorted through his spells to select those that would be effective on this devil.

Softly he stared to recite a dharani. "Adoration to all the Buddhas! Adoration to the teaching that knows no obstructions! Thus: Om! Khya khya khyahi khyahi! Hum hum! ..."

Muchitsujo-rei ignored him and continued to study Shiniri.

Kurumi completed the dharani and fell silent, watching and thinking. The ashura had not even flinched. What manner of spirit was this?

Tea: there was nothing in Shiniri's mind except the heat, the flavor of tea. Very well, Muchitsujo-rei would enter through the tea.

The steam rising in soft billows from Shiniri's mug became limned in silver. Slowly it grew incandescent, then blinding. The mug, his hand, his robes, all faded away, no longer substantial. Nothing existed outside the steam, with its sinuous ripples suspended in space.

_I've ... faded away to nothing. I have no form, no past. Nothing defines me._ Shiniri watched the steam undulate in its amorphous, purposeless tumble, starting no place, going nowhere, lost in time. _I can be anything. _The steam's soft waves warped and swirled to become a fish, a dragon, a tree, a bird, a flame ...

KRAK!

The strike to Shiniri's left arm rattled through his body, shattering the illusion of the steam into disjointed shards.

Kurumi found himself staring not at Shiniri but into the savage eyes of an enraged kami.

"Who are you, ashura?" he asked. "What do you seek?"

Muchitsujo-rei hissed at him.

Kurumi struck again, a quick, sharp snap with his switch. He locked eyes with the mad god and sternly ordered, "Answer me! What do you require?"

Impertinent old man. Did he think he could stop a kami? He was no more than an annoying wasp with his buzzing and stinging. A swat would cure this.

Muchitsujo-rei used Shiniri to snap a palm strike at Kurumi, releasing a powerful psychic bolt at Kurumi's heart.

Kurumi countered with a block that stopped Muchitsujo-rei's bolt cold in the space between them. The bolt hung a moment, gleaming, then vanished.

Muchitsujo-rei paused, astonished. Had the little man actually stopped his blow?

Kurumi sat before Muchitsujo-rei, outwardly serene and untouched, inwardly aware of every twitch and shift his adversary made. He now had the tiger's attention.

Shiniri saw the room reappear around him, felt the chill of the air return to his face, heard the soft crack of the fire. He looked out in puzzlement at Kurumi-sensei sitting before him with fierce, forbidding eyes. Why was his hand stretched out like that? What was going on?

Kurumi saw Shiniri awaken as Muchitsujo-rei's hold loosened. Perhaps, if he kept the devil distracted, Shiniri would be able to free himself. Kurumi pulled an ofuda from his sleeve and chanted another dharani, then cast it at Shiniri's lap.

Muchitsujo-rei snarled; a puff of wind blew the ofuda away.

Kurumi held up another. Focussing on the Dharma and his place in the Buddha-source, Kurumi recited from the sutras, "'All kinds of beings, such as the egg-born, the womb-born, the moisture-born, the miraculously-born, those with form, those without form, those with consciousness, those without consciousness, those with no-consciousness, those without no-consciousness -- they are all led by me to enter Nirvana that leaves nothing behind and to attain final emancipation.' You are willful and angry, you place your pain on us all. Let go of your will and touch the Buddha-source and achieve your true freedom."

Muchitsujo-rei slid free of Shiniri to directly confront Kurumi. "Pathetic old man, you dare to preach to the most powerful kami in all the realms your meager philosophy of nothing? I have everything!"

"And still you are not content. You take more and more and more and it is never enough. Come. Let me show you the other way. Lose your self and achieve the Universe."

It was remarkable how this almost unfailingly drove an angry spirit into a mindless frenzy. Shiniri was forgotten as Muchitsujo-rei sought to display his greatness to his unimpressed audience, growing large and vivid in his ire, engulfing the room with his presence.

It was also remarkable how often these spirits failed to see the immensity of the Buddha-source that sustained a Buddhist master. Kurumi had nothing because he needed nothing. He touched the Infinite daily.

Kurumi sat quietly as Muchitsujo-rei fully entered the mortal realm. Any moment now; he would know the time.

The psychic presence of the kami became solid and in that instant, Kurumi struck.

In a series of rapid snaps with his switch, Kurumi keyed a sequence of triggers that disrupted Muchitsujo-rei's ki. The vast potential of the Buddha-source flowed through Kurumi to ring discordant harmonics, causing ripples to flow out from the touches. Wave patterns crossed one another, disrupting the kami's cohesion. One last touch for the sequence, and the spirit should implode. Kurumi's switch flicked out, all went blindingly bright, then dark.

Kurumi floated in space, surrounded by an atmosphere neither light nor dark; the utter stillness around him was alive with possibilities just waiting for a touch to make them real. Everything that had been, was, or ever would be hung in that space, all the infinite varieties of the universe became one here. Kurumi's thought paused for a long moment, or a blink, then he remembered the flash and the mad spirit in his hut, and he thought, "Shiniri. Did he escape?"

The Universe rotated suddenly and Kurumi was falling through darkness over a bottomless void, then he stood before another spirit. This spirit looked like a man with coal black skin, bushy white hair and glowing vermillion eyes. He was dressed in a sumptuous golden kimono and sat on a cushion above Kurumi's head, looking down at the monk.

"I don't see people enter my realm through that path very often," the spirit remarked.

Kurumi bowed respectfully and said, "Forgive this foolish old man, but what realm is this?"

"This is the Realm of the Dead and I am its lord and judge, Emma-O."

Kurumi said, "Forgive me again, but what was so unusual about my path?"

Emma-O looked wryly amused. "Most beings who enter Nirvana stay there. Perhaps some earthly concern drew you back out?"

Kurumi gasped. "Shiniri! My student. I was battling a willful spirit that sought to possess him, was expelling it from the mortal realm, when ... I suppose I failed. What became of the boy?"

"That 'willful spirit' was no ordinary ashura, that was a powerful, mad kami that even we other kami cannot restrain. Your attempt was well done, but human flesh cannot contain the forces you encountered in your battle."

That was interesting, but it didn't answer Kurumi's question. "My student?"

"Ah, the attachment that denies you Nirvana. He has not entered my realm, so he still lives."

Aching regret surged through Kurumi and he dropped his gaze from Emma-O's countenance. He had failed to protect his student. Behind him, his demons materialized to act out his shame.

Emma-O watched the demons for a time, then said, "So, you cannot let go of this loss, this failure of a deed beyond human capacity."

Kurumi shook his head. "It is foolish, and yet..."

"A small and noble failing that bars you from Nirvana. Such a generous sentiment should not be rewarded thus. I cannot send you on to Nirvana, but I might be able to give you another way to fight the kami who defeated you. I and a number of other kami are working to restrain him from his excesses. We can use your knowledge; you came very close to succeeding. Would you consider aiding us?"

Kurumi thought for a time. Sometimes great needs required a different path. "To be of service in a great endeavor, for this I could forgo Nirvana for a time."

Emma-O nodded his satisfaction. "Excellent. I will arrange your next incarnation."

_Author's note:_

_Ye gods, it's finally finished. I apologize for how long it took to write this chapter. I don't like leaving you hanging any more than you like getting stuck waiting._

_This was a challenging chapter. I spent over a month with my nose in books on Buddhism trying to get these scenes right. I would like to acknowledge my debt the D. T. Suzuki's book "Manual of Zen Buddhism" for providing me with key texts on common prayers and sutras used by the Zen sect and several commentaries written by its most prominent thinkers._

_I think it was time well spent. Zen is a fascinating, frustrating, concept that is always hanging just out of reach. Even the Masters wrote, more than once, "No, I'm not really sure I do get it." You have to love a philosophy that produces thinkers willing to admit they could be way off base._


	43. Chapter 43 The Little Folk

Chapter 43 - The Little Folk 

Shivering violently from cold and terror, Shiniri paused from his flight at the top of the mountain pass to look back at the remains of Kurumi's hut and garden; half the hut was was blown away and a yawning hole admitted the swirling snow that was starting to engulf the pass. The crooked, old pine tree that overlooked the garden pond had suffered grievously, most of the lower branches had been shattered and only a few clumps of needles remained. Steam rose from the hole in the roof and blended with the falling snow to obscure the hut in clouds of mist. Through the mist, Shiniri could sense the wounded throbbing of the ravaged kami in the heart of the ruins where Kurumi's body still lay.

"Forgive me, sensei," Shiniri murmured. "I'm grateful for my life, but I cannot stay to honor you. I will say the prayers at the next temple I find."

He looked back a moment longer, then turned away to clamber down the far side of the mountain as the snow finally veiled the hut and its garden from view.

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The River Woman watched the darkly pulsing upwelling that marked the aftermath of the battle between Kurumi and Muchitsujo-rei. She had informed her compatriots when the battle began and had watched the curious path of the Zen master as he touched Nirvana then fell into the Realm of the Dead.

Now she watched anxiously as Hachiman, the kami dispatched to capture Muchitsujo-rei, approached the wounded god. Maybe, just maybe, they could finish this now. Maybe, just maybe, they could avoid the horrors that were forming downstream. Maybe...

There were times even the kami prayed.

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The Lady stalked through the hallways of her palace, her temper not improved by the involuntary flinching aside of the courtiers and servants. She was surrounded by weaklings. How could she possibly hope to withstand a challenge with this to support her? And that girl! She'd had such hopes for her. A daughter of Ame-onna by the Lord of the Storm Dogs should have been extraordinary, but instead, she got that cringing incompetent. Sesshomaru was right, and that rankled worst of all.

She had to salvage this. Sometimes, strengths skipped generations. If she removed the girl from the picture and raised the pups herself, she may yet have something.

She clapped her hands sharply. A young messenger presented himself and bowed to her.

"Lady?"

"Let it be known that I wish to see Karimaru-san at his earliest convenience."

"Lady." The messenger bowed again and vanished.

The Lady walked to her privy chamber and fretted, waiting impatiently for Karimaru while she considered the details of her decision.

Karimaru entered the privy chamber and bowed smoothly, then faced the fierce amber eyes of his Lady.

"Lady, you wish something?"

"We shall see. First, what can you tell me of InuYasha's pack?"

Karimaru delivered his report of the doings of InuYasha's young family. They continued to live as a human family, and paid scant heed to the youkai world around them. InuYasha had a set territory that he kept clear of dangerous youkai, but he showed no interest in expanding his borders. The miko woman spent her time in the village tending to the sick and troubled or brewing medicines and charms. She had a considerable amount of reiki, which made her dangerous to youkai. The children lived as human children, but showed flashes of unusual talents now and again.

"So, outside of Inuyasha and his sword, there is nothing to stop us from simply removing the problem now?" The Lady rested her delicate chin in her hand and raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"That is very hard to say," Karimaru replied. "There is some very strange magic there, magic like I have never seen before."

The Lady frowned. So Karimaru was trying to wiggle out of it; didn't she have anyone capable of decisive action?

"How do you know this strange magic is a problem?" she demanded.

"I ... don't. Not really. But ..."

"But, but, but. Tell me something I can use," she snapped impatiently.

"What do you make of this?" Karimaru asked, taking a small ball out of his sleeve. It was just big enough to fit comfortably in his hand. He held it up, then bounced it on the floor. The ball lit up with flashing multicolored lights for a time, then the lights faded out.

The Lady rocked back. "What makes the lights?"

"I don't know. Captured spirits perhaps?" Karimaru held the ball out to the Lady. Gingerly she took it, then cautiously examined it. There was no scent or feel of youki or reiki about the ball at all. It was firm, but resilient, and there was no sign of an opening anywhere on it. Strange magic indeed.

"What do they do with this spirit ball?" she inquired.

"The children play with it."

They captured spirits into a ball just to let the children play with it? That was alarming. Perhaps caution was the better plan for now, at least until they knew how this strange magic worked. This made it even more imperative that her pack be strong and capable. It was time to do something about that useless girl.

"Keep watching InuYasha for the time being. We won't move yet. We have problems enough here. Tell me, is there a bitch among the Forest Dogs who can serve me as a wet-nurse?"

Karimaru's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Lady! The last time I saw Inazuma-hime, she was the picture of health."

The Lady snorted contemptuously. "Yes, yes, she is the picture of health, but she is utterly unsuitable to raise those pups. I won't have her contaminating their spirits with her weakness. As soon as the pups are delivered, she will be removed."

"Lady, her mother..." Karimaru protested. This would not go over well with the Storm Dogs when they got wind of it.

The Lady's eyes flashed. "Her mother foisted her off on me knowing full well she is useless. She will only be miffed that I caught on so quickly."

Karimaru swallowed carefully. He did not want to have his name attached to this. The dealings of high-status bitches was not for the faint of heart, but this was more bloodcurdling than usual.

"I will personally check the Forest Dogs' villages for one who might meet your requirements. I do hope my Lady is not being ... over-hasty.

The Lady growled her displeasure at his implied reservations. He bowed again and withdrew.

The Lady blew a disgruntled breath at Karimaru's impertinence, then left the room herself.

--------------------------

Nijuuichi stood in the servant's alcove for a time, his heart thumping in his chest. The Lady was planning to remove Inazuma-hime. Just when the servants had found a sympathetic ear among the masters, she was to be ... expelled, at best, perhaps killed.

The little tanuki quivered with indecision; tanuki were timid youkai, clever with their hands or a spell, but not often up for a real fight. An entire clan of tanuki worked as the palace servants of the Sky Dogs, exchanging their service for a generally safe place to live. Still, there were abuses. The Dogs often enough did not understand how long it took to do a particular service, or they became surly if the tanuki asked for clarifications before starting. Most just barked or growled when annoyed, but some were given to snapping or slashing out. Right now, the Lady, who was normally cold and precise, was nigh impossible to serve without an incident, and the vassals were jumpy and impatient with even the slightest delay. The highly charged atmosphere was wearing on the tanukis' sensitive nerves and they were fumbling more than usual, which just made it all worse.

Nijuuichi rocked back and forth, from foot to foot, anxiously trying to decide if he could safely leave the alcove. The Lady appeared to be done with the room. He really should move to a more trafficked area of the palace; he was serving no one here. Yes, then he could tell one of the clan what he had heard.

---------------------------------------------

Inazuma-hime saw shy little Sanjuusan, her chambermaid, enter the room silently with a new set of bedding, tears streaming down her cheeks. The black-haired princess of the Storm Dogs had been quietly cultivating relationships with her servants, offering a sympathetic ear to their troubles and a comforting shoulder to their griefs, and learning all about the inner workings of the palace and the personalities of its residents.

Sanjuusan was a sweet, gentle tanuki maiden who was quite lost in love to a high ranked servant of the Lady herself, who thus far had not noticed the soulful eyes that watched him from afar. Given the currents in the palace lately, the Lady may have just dealt him a grievous blow. Inazuma-hime was very interested in all things that set the Lady off.

"Sanjuusan-chan, whatever is the matter? Come, tell me all about it." Inazuma-hime smiled encouragingly at the girl as she put the bedding down in its alcove and started to gather the used bedding.

Sanjuusan sniffed harder and swallowed convulsively, then looked at her princess with huge, frightened eyes.

"Oh, oh, Inazuma-hime, I heard the ... the most awful thing. The ... the Lady is planning to re'remove you!" she blurted, then burst into heart-rending sobs.

A jolt ran through Inazuma-hime.

"Are you sure?" she snapped sharply.

Sanjuusan shuddered at the cutting tone of the question, looking on the edge of panic. Inazuma gripped her surging emotions. Gentle - she must be gentle. She would get nothing coherent from the girl if she frightened her. Inazuma-hime looked at the Sanjuusan with earnest eyes.

"Sanjuusan-chan, please, tell me what makes you think the Lady means to remove me?"

"All the servants heard about it," Sanjuusan wailed. " Nijuuichi said she ordered Karimaru-sama to find a wet nurse among the Forest Dogs. It's so ... so ..."

It's so like a bitch. Still, Inazuma-hime could not figure out what she had done to tip her hand. She had been so careful to not appear a serious threat. "Sanjuusan-chan, now think carefully. Why does the Lady want me removed?"

"I ... I don't know. I didn't hear that part." Sanjuusan looked anxiously at her mistress through her tears, fearing her displeasure.

"It's all right, dear. I'm not angry with you," Inazuma-hime said reassuringly. "But I do need you to do something for me."

Sanjuusan looked at her mistress apprehensively. Special jobs were usually hazardous.

"It's very simple," Inazuma-hime assured her. "I just want to talk to Nijuuichi myself. Would you fetch him?"

"Yes. Yes, of course. Right away." Emboldened by a chance to help her mistress, Sanjuusan gathered up the used bedding and bowed her way out of the room.

Inazuma-hime knelt and rubbed a hand over her swollen belly while she thought. This litter may be all that was keeping her alive and she was due to deliver very soon. She had to find out what the Lady was thinking, and quickly. The wrong countermove would surely spell her death.

---------------------------------------------

Nijuuichi was buried in the back of the tanukis' communal den, bemoaning the fate of the clan with a handful of cronies, a half dozen empty sake carafes on the table between them, when Sanjuusan found him. He was drunk, disheveled and melancholy, his eyes bloodshot, his nose flushed and the dark patches around his eyes making him look even more despondent. Sanjuusan's eyes flashed with unaccustomed boldness as she looked at her tipsy cousin.

"Put it away, Nijuuichi, and come quickly," she ordered. "The princess wants to see you."

Nijuuichi looked up with a surge of fear. "Oh, no. I only heard. I didn't have anything to do with it."

Sanjuusan brushed off his protest impatiently, grabbed his coat and hauled him to his feet. "That won't do. She's very kind and reasonable, but she won't like being left waiting. Come!"

She dragged him from the room, stumbling and sputtering protests, then pushed him down the corridors, scolding, "Look at you! Your shirt is flapping open, your fur is all mussed, what a disgrace!"

Nijuuichi jerked his shirt into place and ran his claws quickly through his fur, past his ears, around his ruff, down his tail. They would just have to cope with the smell of the sake.

Sanjuusan and Nijuuichi exchanged frightened looks at the threshold of the door.

"Really, she's very kind," Sanjuusan said encouragingly as she knocked tentatively on the door.

Within the room, Inazuma-hime looked up from her reveries. "Come."

The two little tanuki entered timidly to meet the fierce moonstone eyes of the black-haired princess. Nijuuichi's nerve failed and he started to bolt; Sanjuusan caught him.

Inazuma-hime smiled, calming her expression, and beckoned to Nijuuichi.

"I thank you for coming," she said softly.

Nijuuichi swallowed convulsively. When the Lady sounded like that....

"I understand you have heard a thing or two the Lady said concerning me."

"I, er, yes, princess"

"Would you please repeat it back to me, as exactly as possible?" She still sounded quiet and meek.

"Ah, uh ... it's ... it's not very flattering, princess."

"I didn't expect it to be. However, if I am to make amends for my faults, I must know what they are."

"Oh, my." Nijuuichi looked queasy. "Princess, the Lady, she ordered Karimaru-sama to seek out a wet nurse among the Forest Dogs. She, uh, she doesn't want your, uh, your weakness to spoil the spirits of the pups."

Inazuma-hime's head snapped up, the jagged stripes on her cheeks flashed vivid white. Damn! She'd badly misplayed this. Her blood rose hot to the challenge, her vision darkened and her ears roared with her battle-lust. So, the Lady wants a fight, does she? Inazuma-hime could arrange that. She'd dearly love to take a bite out of the Lady.

"Princess? Princess?" The words came faintly through the roaring, but they brought her back to herself. Not now. She must plan. An ill-conceived fight would be just as fatal as belly scraping. She looked at the pair of tanuki who clung to each other, quivering, before her.

Yes, she must plan, lay her ground work. With an effort, she extinguished the rest of her passion, put on her gentle, reasonable face. She could own these folk if she played it right. Be gentle; be reasonable; don't frighten them, don't ask them to step out of themselves. She must work with them.

"So. So, so, so." She smiled regretfully. "Thank you for coming, Nijuuichi, Sanjuusan. I would have some time alone to ponder this. There is no need to do anything more."

That was an order, one both tanuki jumped to follow. They scampered from the room and returned to the tanuki quarters, relieved to have gotten off unscathed.

Inazuma-hime pondered long on her strategy. A fight - she needed a fight, a real one, one that could show some of her capabilities. Some of her capabilities. Also, the Lady must win this fight. So, when? Why? What should set her off?

The pups squirmed within her, growing restive with the tense mood. She rubbed across her belly, soothing them.

"Quiet, my dears. Mother must think." Mother instinct, that was a good why.

When? She doubted she would have very long after delivery to gather herself. The Lady had already made her decision; she would take Inazuma out when the last pup was delivered, when she was tired and unwary. So. She needed to move sometime during labor. Hmm. She still needed a distraction that would allow her to slip away her undetected pup. The commotion would serve her well for that. Yes.

Still, there was much to do and little enough time left in which to do it.

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Shobo carefully sliced cabbages and shredded daikon radishes. He salted the vegetables, let them sit briefly, kneaded them until they were limp and juicy, placed them in layers in a crock with a couple of sheets of kombu seaweed between them, then placed a pickling stone on top of it all. He carried the large crock to the cool-room under the porch, then pulled out another crock for today's meals. Removing the stone from this crock, he scooped out a large bowl full of cured vegetables, placed it on a bamboo strainer and poured water over it to wash away the excess salt. Once the pickle had drained thoroughly, he put it back in the bowl, drizzled a little vinegar over it and took it to Haruo, the head cook.

"Aie, Shobo, what's with you today?" Haruo asked. "Where are the chrysanthemum turnips I asked for?"

"Coming," Shobo replied. "I only just got the turnips from the market boy."

"Well, see you get to it. The master has guests from the Lord of the Hojo clan and we must have a fitting meal."

Shobo turned and sorted the turnips, washing off the remains of the soil, cutting off the greens for steeping and trimming the roots into plump little cylinders. Sighing, he placed the first turnip between a pair of kitchen chopsticks and carefully sliced a fine grid most of the way through the turnip, then placed the turnip in warm salted water to wilt. Later, he would marinate the turnips in sweetened vinegar to flavor them. When ready, the turnips would resemble the fluffy heads of white chrysanthemum blossoms.

A beautiful meal, carefully designed to please all the senses. Shobo wondered if that included his niece, Chiyo. When most of their crop failed last fall, Shobo's sister had sent the girl to him for employment. They had thought she would be safe, hidden in the kitchens, but nothing was safe. Sumio-sama had learned of the girl within a week.

Shobo's stomach churned with shame, that he had been unable to shield Chiyo, but what was a mere pickler to do? He knew all the ways of slicing and salting vegetables, but his skill with a knife did not extend to fending off a trained warrior. He did not have the spiritual strength to defy the master in the face of certain death. He despised himself for being so craven, and hated his master for making him see it, but what could he do? He was just a cook and Sumio had all of his food tested before he, himself, ate. Shobo was absolutely impotent, unlike that ninja boy who lurked in the shadows of the castle, causing mischief whenever opportunities arose.

The whole castle knew about him. He made the guards' lives miserable; all of them had stories of the chases he had led them on. He had fouled several of Sumio's campaign plans by laming horses and destroying supplies. Most telling, he had made several daring rescues of Sumio's hostages and prisoners. Somehow, he always managed to evade capture. Shobo wondered how much of that was just chance; there were far too many miracles for coincidence.

Shobo completed the preparations of the turnips, then gathered a smattering of bits and ends from the kitchen - turnip greens, left over stewed gourds, dried bonito shavings, slivers of mushrooms, trimmings from an omelet, and mixed them with a small bowl of rice. He swiftly formed his mixture into pressed balls, wrapped them in steamed cabbage leaves and left them hidden in an alcove of a room known to be frequented by the boy.

Later in the day, when he was moving a basket of cabbages across the yard, he saw a furtive figure in the shadows who held up a rice ball, bowed quickly, and vanished.

-------------------------------

"_Is there __any__ among all of the children of In and Yo who is a greater fool than Hachiman!?_" Inari raged. "_What manner of fool approaches a rabid snake looking for an __honorable__duel__!?_"

"_You forget yourself_," Hachiman retorted sullenly. "_You have associated yourself with those vile foxes for so long you no longer remember a virtuous path._"

The full alliance of the kami who sought to contain Muchitsujo-rei had assembled shortly after the disastrous end to Hachiman's mission to form their strategy for their next moves in light of what had just occurred. The meeting quickly degenerated into a witch-hunt; Inari, throbbing with fury and no friend of Hachiman in the best of times, castigated Hachiman in scathing tones before the entire assembly.

"_Virtue! __Virtue__! How is the world served when that ravening star of madness gets restored because you had to play fair? You __knew__ he had no such compunction. We sent you to bind him by whatever means possible and while you dithered away at proper forms he struck and sucked you dry. There's the value of your 'virtue'!_"

Bridling, Hachiman threw out his own accusations. "_I'll not have the likes of you judging my actions. You change your tale so often you no longer have one. Now you're male, now you're female, today you'll bless an old woman, tomorrow you curse a village, all on whatever whim sways you while the rock beneath your feet dissolves away to mud. You're as bad as he is._"

"_Am I? Am I indeed?_" Inari crooned. "_And what of you, Hachiman, patron of War? Are you not better served by Muchitsujo-rei's freedom? Tell me, did you blunder it on purpose so that you might continue to gather the prayers of the warring clans?_"

"_I don't need the prayers of the war-bound_," Hachiman replied stiffly. "_Enough of the farmers have become weary of your capricious ways to change their devotions to me. They know I will deal straight with them. Is this not your real quarrel with me, faithless Inari?_"

"_All of your bluster will not hide the fact that you botched the job_," Inari sneered. "_I don't give a damn about your methods or intentions. The only thing that matters is results, and yours are worse than doing nothing._"

"_The only thing?_" Hachiman asked pointedly. "_What level of evil are you willing to employ to achieve your good result, Inari?_"

"_Enough_." Emma-O's firm word halted the quarrel. "_Motives and methods can be discussed at another time. What's done is done. I requested this meeting to decide how we will deal with the consequences._"

While Hachiman and Inari continued to glare belligerently at each other, the remaining kami turned their attention to the gamefield displayed before them.

"_What is all this over here?_" Fukurokuju asked, pointing to the darkness clouding the palace of the Sky Dogs.

"_Muchitsujo-rei has been stirring up the Lady of the Sky Dogs, suggesting to her that the bastard son of her mate intends to make a Challenge_," the River Woman explained. "_She has arranged a marriage for her son to rebuild her pack and prepares to attack_."

"_Rank foolishness_," Fukurokuju declared tartly. "_That will reduce the entire western shore to ruins_."

"_That is not an inevitability, Kami-ue_," the River Woman replied. "_Much depends on the actions of the young mother within, and she is aware of kami influences_."

"_Who is this young mother?_" Fukurokuju asked.

"_She is Inazuma-hime of the Storm Dogs_."

"_That one!_" Fukurokuju paused in thought for a long moment. Finally, he nodded to himself, then remarked, "_Play very cautiously near her. She is a wild mark of the first order._"

The River Woman shuddered, deeply shaken. A wild mark was the last thing the Sky Dog Clan situation needed. If she set in place some markers to guide the paths, channeled the flows for damage control, perhaps she could... - but where? She selected a piece to divert flows away from the palace. Fukurokuju stayed her hand before she could place it.

"_No. Do not constrain her. Give her complete latitude, but watch her. __She__ must decide_."

Emma-O nodded in agreement. "_Let her be for now. Any disturbance will only make it worse._"

"_I very much mislike this_," Ebisu complained, pointing to the castle of Shigeru Sumio. "_This great sink bleeds all the virtue from my blessings_." Sumio was a very sore subject with Ebisu, the kami who rewarded hard labor and diligence.

"_The patron of patience grows impatient?_" Inari said sardonically.

"_That so very many honest souls should labor so long only to lose more each year offends me_," Ebisu snapped.

"_This samurai has Muchitsujo-rei's special patronage_," Emma-O reminded Ebisu. "_We do not have the means to tackle him directly just yet. We will be most effective bleeding down Muchitsujo-rei's other pools of influence_."

"_Oh, __that's__ going well!_" Ebisu cried. "_The Imagawa situation for instance..._"

"_Imagawa is not as it appears,_" the River Woman said softly. "_Soon enough, it will be ours_."

Ebisu frowned over the Imagawa clan and what was left of its influence. "_It doesn't look like enough to dampen Muchitsujo-rei appreciably. It looks like a waste of effort._"

"_Every little bit does something_," the River Woman replied. "_This is in part a game of attrition._"

Ebisu was not persuaded. "_It seems to me that we are the ones suffering attrition. At what point do we attack Muchitsujo-rei directly? It will need to be done eventually._"

"_Ah. For that, I do have a tool_," Emma-O declared. "_Right now, I hold the soul of the Zen master who nearly conquered Muchitsujo-rei using the Buddha-source. I've spoken with him and he is willing to be reborn to try again. I seek your wisdom to choose where to place him. I was thinking, perhaps, in the hanyou/miko anchor._"

"_Can that be done?_" Inari wondered. "_I don't see the Buddha-source accepting the touch of the youkai-born_."

"_They have reiki too_," Emma-O reminded him.

"_Do not assume what will or will not be accepted by the Buddha-source_," Fukurokuju said. "_Its rules are unfathomable_."

"_That's because it doesn't __have__ any_," Inari grumbled.

"_Just so_."

"_Should we be reaching for the Buddha-source?_" Ebisu wondered. "_We don't know what it will do_."

"_It will do what it always does_," Fukurokuju said. "_It will bring balance_."

"_But at what cost?_" Hachiman asked.

"_Exactly what is needful, no more_," Fukurokuju replied.

"_That's __so__ reassuring_," Inari said sarcastically.

"_So, what have you and your foxes concocted that's more promising?_" Hachiman inquired.

Inari glared at him, silent for once.

"_I thought as much_."

"_Are we agreed? A reincarnation of the Zen master as a youkai priest?_" Emma-O asked.

"_No. You don't have the time._" Ryuujin, the Sea King, spoke for the first time. This was his first meeting with the alliance against Muchitsujo-rei. The rest of the kami were still not sure exactly what had drawn the old dragon out of the Coral Palace; so far, he had listened to the deliberations without comment, preferring to spend his time studying the playing field.

"_Eh? What time is needed?_" asked Ebisu.

"_He will take the full span of a mortal's life to regain his touch with the Buddha-source. You do not have that time_."

"_How long do we have?_" Emma-O asked.

"_See here_." The Dragon King pointed to an area of almost imperceptible darkness on the river downstream of the current field of play. A wave of his hand brought the area into relief, where the barest beginnings of a vortex could be detected. "_There. It is twenty-five years out at the most. This is the decision point that will decide Muchitsujo-rei's fate. Your man will have just begun his journey if he is born now._"

"_Then he is useless?_" Inari asked.

"_Only if he is born now_."

"_But when else would he be born?_" asked Hachiman.

"_Ah_." Emma-O's face brightened as he looked at Ryuujin. "_His role?_"

"_A teacher_," Ryuujin replied. "_The students are apt enough_."

"_Are they?_" Inari demanded. He waved a hand at the cluster hovering about the hanyou/miko anchor. "_In my experience, it takes at least three lifetimes before a young dragon will even deign to listen to anyone, and I'm not sure the boy thinks at all._"

"_Perhaps you are right_," Emma-O sighed. "_Time will tell. This is not the only campaign we are working, though. We also have progress among the daimyo. We could use your assistance in guiding some key areas. What do you think of Oda Nobunaga's prospects?_"

While the other kami discussed the actions of the daimyo, the River Woman's thoughts kept drifting back to the Zen master and his student. Emma-O had evidently gleaned the subtle clues Ryuujin had concerning Kurumi and had made his plan, but wasn't Shiniri was the one Muchitsujo-rei had been hunting? She had lost track of Shiniri in the blinding glare of the battle between Muchitsujo-rei and Kurumi and the subsequent battle between Muchitsujo-rei and Hachiman. She expected they were going to regret it. As the meeting came to a conclusion, she tried one last time to locate Shiniri.

"_Hachiman-sama, a moment, I beg you_." She bowed before Hachiman humbly and awaited permission to speak.

"_Yes?_"

"_The monk, Kurumi, had a student, a young monk. Did you detect any trace of him when you went to Kurumi's abode?_"

"_Don't you think I had rather bigger things on my plate than the location of some insignificant little monk? I was far too busy to go sightseeing_," snarled Hachiman, who then left abruptly in a huff.

Inari, now in female aspect, approached the River Woman, eyes alight in interest.

"_Really, he has no feeling for these things_," Inari said in commiseration. "_A favorite of yours? We all have them, don't we? Tell me, what was special about this one?_"

The River Woman watched the glittering Inari warily. Despite her awe of them, she greatly preferred grim Emma-O and stiff, blunt Hachiman to gay, charming, dangerous Inari. What was her game this time? She was fishing for confidences, hoping for a slip. Why? Was she still looking for something to pin on Hachiman or did she have something else in mind?

"_I just don't like loose ends_," the River Woman replied softly.

"_Oh_," Inari said, becoming bored. "_Well, best of luck to you. I really don't know how you manage it_."

She glimmered away, leaving only the River Woman and the Gatekeeper on the knoll.

"_Is it true that the boy has not entered the Realm of the Dead?_" the River Woman asked the Gatekeeper.

"_No, I have not seen him. How important is it?_"

"_It may be nothing, but it's the little things that lose a war._"


	44. Chapter 44 Family Politics 101

Chapter 44 - Family Politics 101 

A ferocious midwinter storm descended on the valley at the end of January, closing the village down completely for a day and a half. The wind shrieked and howled between the houses, blowing snow like stinging pellets through the alleys and piling it against the buildings and fences. No one dared leave his house until the storm died at dawn, leaving the village buried in drifts of snow so deep that some houses were merely mounds with smoke rising through the peaks of roofs that peeped out at the top. As soon as the storm relented, the more energetic of the villagers began digging out, and dark forms could be seen clearing doorways and carving trails through the village.

InuYasha dug out a path from his own house to the village, then turned his attention to visiting house to house to check on the neighbors. Most people were secure, if cold, although he carried a few people with hypothermia or frostbite to the shrine for Kaede and Kagome to tend.

After all the villagers had been accounted for, restocking firewood and food stores became a priority. The large mound that buried the granary had an ominous dip in the middle. When the men investigated further, they found the roof of the granary had collapsed under the weight of the snow. InuYasha helped them move the grain urns to the more sheltered ends of the granary, promised to help with the heavy lifting when the roof repair began, then he took off over the pass to check on Masahiro's village.

While he was gone, Eiichi and Hideo went into the forest to choose wood from the wood stores that Hideo had stockpiled for the next year's building projects.

When InuYasha returned from checking on Masahiro's village near sunset, Eiichi and Hideo still had not come back and snow was beginning to fall again. Their wives were becoming concerned and they pleaded with InuYasha to find their husbands and bring them home.

"Come on, Shippo, we're running out of time!" InuYasha called as he dumped a large load of firewood beside the hearth and accepted a package of food from Kagome. "Yuki-onna is wandering the trails; I smelled her when I went over the pass."

Shippo emerged from his den, wearing a bushy, rice-straw rain cloak and holding a pair of leaves. "I'm almost ready," he said. He broke each leaf in half and put the stem half in a box on the family alter, then handed one of the halves to InuYasha.

"What's this?" InuYasha asked, frowning at the bit of leaf.

"It's a homing charm," Shippo replied, tucking his other half into a small box in his pocket. "No matter what Yuki-onna throws at us, this will lead us home."

"Good idea," InuYasha remarked, carefully tucking his bit of leaf in his shirt.

Shippo took another package of food from Kagome, then the two of them disappeared into the forest through the thickening storm.

They didn't return that night or the next two nights. Kagome endured being shut up in the house with three active, bored, small children while her worries about her husband and neighbors continued to mount. Tsuchiya, who never had learned how to sit still, released his pent-up energy by teasing Toushi, whose volatile temper rose quickly to the challenge. Noriko took advantage of the moments Kagome spent breaking up fights to demolish the pantry. As soon as Kagome got to work cleaning the pantry, Tsuchiya and Toushi were at each other's throats again.

She was vacillating between the advisability of murder versus suicide when Shippo turned up on the afternoon of the third day. She must have been a sight; Shippo backed up three quick steps and looked on the verge of bolting when she turned to greet him.

"Ah ... Kagome-chan?" he asked tentatively.

I'm all right," she replied. "Just a bit stressed." Even she could hear the ragged edge of hysteria in her voice.

"Put down the knife," Shippo said. "I'll make some tea."

"Knife?" Kagome looked at her hand. "Oh. Oh, I ... I was slicing turnips for a pickle."

"I think the pickle can wait a bit." Shippo said soothingly. "If you want, I'll do it later. Right now, you need to sit down and have some tea."

Shippo looked around the house as Kagome shakily put the knife on the counter and sat down by the hearth. Despite the crackling air of tension, the house was unnaturally quiet.

"Kagome-chan, where are the kids?"

Kagome stiffened, teeth clenched. "Noriko is napping in my room, Tsuchiya is in his corner and Toushi is in the pantry. I told them if I heard one more peep out of them I'd cut off their ears."

"Ah." Shippo spotted Tsuchiya sitting anxiously in his corner.

"Where's InuYasha?" Kagome asked.

"He's still with Eiichi and Hideo up in the mountains. A tree fell on Hideo and broke his leg, so we had to stay up there until we could move him safely. They're in a cave sheltering from Yuki-onna. InuYasha will bring them in when Yuki-onna gives up the hunt."

"Yuki-onna found you? How did you get out?" Kagome asked.

Shippo showed Kagome the leaf fragment he used as a guide. "I took a chance on a break in the weather and flew out to bring word down here. Don't worry about the rest of them, they'll get a bit hungry up there, but they're safe enough. There's a hot spring in the cave, so they're even warm."

A large part of the load on Kagome's mind lifted as she listened to the report. InuYasha was safe so far and playing it smart.

"Should I make up some food for you to take back up there?" she asked.

"Let's figure that out tomorrow." Shippo replied. "I think the storm is going to break up pretty soon. I'm going down to the village to let Hideo and Eiichi's families know what's going on." Shippo wrapped his rain cloak around himself again and trudged down to the village to pass on his news.

The novelty of having Shippo back could only maintain the peace for so long, so Kagome was very relieved to see the weather break the next morning. The clouds lifted quickly, leaving a brilliant blue sky and a sparkling wonderland of snowy fields and frosted trees. Tsuchiya and Toushi abandoned their other occupations to hang at the doorway and gaze longingly at the pristine snow.

"After you put everything away, you may go out and play in the snow," Kagome told them.

"Yay!!" The children scrambled about, roughly shoving books and toys on the shelves then rooting in a chest for scarves and coats.

"Is everything away?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, yes!" Tsuchiya shot out the door and Toushi danced impatiently as Kagome held her back to say, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Mama!" Toushi cried, then ran out herself.

Kagome took Noriko out for a brief romp, then they both went back into the warmth of the house and Kagome started yet again to reassemble her pantry.

Shippo and Tsuchiya joined in an energetic snowball fight with a pack of the other village boys, while Toushi and some of the girls built snowmen. A few stray snowballs drew the girls into the snow war for a short time. Toushi got a snowball down into her coat in the fight, and, teeth chattering, went home to thaw out.

She walked in the door and stopped dead, transfixed in horror, staring at the ruins of her treasured hair ornaments. The box was knocked over, its contents strewn across the floor. The bows were pulled apart, their beads and rhinestones scattered, and silk flowers shredded. Noriko sat contentedly in the middle of the ruins, carefully pulling apart a silk wisteria cascade and dropping the blossoms one by one to watch them flutter to the ground.

"_Nooooo!_" Toushi shrieked, charging into the mess to snatch the wisteria roughly from Noriko's grasp. Noriko squeaked with surprise, then screamed in outrage when Toushi shoved her over.

Kagome was there an instant later to snatch Noriko out of Toushi's reach before the toddler really got hurt.

"Mama, look what she did!" Toushi wailed.

"I told you at least five times this morning to put that box away," Kagome scolded. "That's what happens when you don't."

Toushi stared at her mother in shock. How was this her fault when Noriko had done the damage? Well, she wasn't going to have that! Her jaw firmly set, she shouted back, "No! Nariko did it! Nariko's bad!"

Her temper rising at the injustice of it all, she jumped up to take another swipe at her sister, slashing deep gouges in Noriko's leg. Noriko screamed in pain.

Her own temper boiling over, Kagome grabbed Toushi by the ear and towed her to the 'bad kid' corner and plopped her firmly on the time-out cushion. Sizzling jolts of energy surged from her fingers, leaving a faint smell of scorched fur in the air.

"You do not hurt the baby," Kagome scolded fiercely, finally letting go of Toushi's much-abused ear. "I'll let you know when you can come out. Until then, think about putting away your toys." She got up and took Noriko away to clean and dress her wounds.

Kagome was still muttering imprecations when Tsuchiya ran in from outside to ask for a snack. The unusual sight of Toushi in the corner was way too tempting; with a quick glance at his mother, who was still bandaging Noriko, he went to stand over the sniffling Toushi. "Ooooooo, look who's in the corner."

Toushi growled resentfully at Tsuchiya who looked down his nose at her.

"Tsuchiya, there's more than one corner in this house," Kagome reminded her son. "Or would you prefer to fetch firewood?"

Tsuchiya quickly retreated from the corner and joined his mother as she finished taping down the last bandage.

"What happened to Noriko?" he asked. "And is there anything around to eat?"

"There's a couple of rice balls left from yesterday, and Noriko got into Toushi's bows, so Toushi clawed her.'

"Oh." Toushi was quick with her claws, as Tsuchiya well knew. Of course, when she slashed him, he was the one who usually got in trouble.

Kagome sighed, then looked at the scattered bows and beads. "Tsu-chan, would you please keep Noriko busy while I pick this up?"

"Awww, Mama!"

"It'll just take a few minutes," Kagome said in exasperation. "Go get the flashy ball and let her chase that."

Tsuchiya rooted in the toy shelves for a short time, then announced, "It's not here."

Kagome rolled her eyes and went to help him. What was it with boys that they couldn't find anything even when it was right under their noses? After several minutes of intensive sorting, she had to admit that the ball was indeed gone.

"Great. Just great. Can't any of you put your things away?" That was about the last thing she needed. That ball was her number one puppy-kid distractor. She'd have to ask Sota where he bought it.

--------------------------

"Papa! Papa! Papa's here!" Tsuchiya and Noriko yelled as they pounced on their father when he finally got home that afternoon.

InuYasha ignored them long enough to embrace Kagome, then he wrestled with Tsuchiya briefly. Dangling the boy upside down by an ankle, he swooped up Noriko in the other arm for a hug and a tickly nuzzle.

As Noriko giggled and Tsuchiya thrashed and growled, InuYasha looked around for Toushi. He caught sight of her huddled in the corner in a morose ball of resentment.

"Um, Kagome?" he asked, nodding toward Toushi.

Kagome's jaw clenched briefly, then she said, "Why don't you ask her about it?"

Inuyasha put down the other two and told them to help Mama with dinner, then he sat down beside Toushi and asked, "What's this all about?"

Toushi sniffed and said, "Nariko's bad. She got my bows and she broked all of them."

"So why are you in the corner?" InuYasha asked.

"I left my box out an, an, and Nariko, she broked my bows and she's bad and..."

"Tell him the rest of it, Toushi," Kagome said sternly.

Toushi sniffed again and stared stolidly into space.

"Oh?" InuYasha asked. "What else is there?"

With a very stubborn set to her jaw, Toushi refused to say another word.

InuYasha looked back at Kagome.

Kagome's eyes flashed angrily, but her voice was even when she replied, "Toushi lost her temper and clawed a chunk out of Noriko's leg. That's why she's in the corner."

"Toushi," InuYasha said gravely. "You can't hurt little babies who don't know any better."

"But, but, but Nariko is better now an, an, and my bows are still broked," Toushi said fiercely, her eyes starting to sparkle with tears. Didn't any one get it?

InuYasha exchanged glances with Kagome. Everything Toushi said was true, even if her priorities were wrong, so now what? The girl was beyond pigheaded when she was caught up in a fit of righteous indignation.

Kagome sighed and came over to crouch down beside Toushi. "Toushi, it's OK to be mad at Noriko. It's even OK to let her know you didn't like what she did. But you can't let her know by hurting her. Breaking a thing and breaking a person are two very different things."

"Yeah, my things don't get better by theyselves," Toushi grumped.

Kagome closed her eyes, deeply frustrated and conjured what was left of her self-control. The girl was being purposely obtuse.

"Do something," she hissed at InuYasha.

"Me?!" InuYasha yelped. What was she thinking? Kagome knew he had no idea what he was doing with this father thing.

"Yes, you. She's your daughter."

Oh, man, if Kagome was out of ideas...

"Um..." InuYasha thought frantically. The note Toushi kept harping on was her ruined hair clips. She was not going to listen to anything until that issue was resolved. Maybe they could make a deal.

"So, um, I guess you're pretty mad about those bows," InuYasha said to Toushi.

Finally! Toushi's stiff posture relaxed immediately and she cuddled in her father's lap to tell him her woes.

InuYasha listened as Toushi described the damages in elaborate detail, then said, "I see. That is pretty bad, but babies do get into things and we can't have you slashing up little babies."

Toushi's ears drew back sullenly as she glowered at the floor. Even Papa wasn't going to give her satisfaction.

"I'll make a deal with you. If you promise not to hurt Noriko, I'll get you a pretty new bow."

Toushi's ears popped forward as she thought about it.

"A puffy red one with sparkles?" she bargained eagerly.

"If I can find one." InuYasha knew enough to give himself some wiggle room.

"OK!"

InuYasha watched Toushi scamper happily away, then looked up into Kagome's disapproving glare.

"What?"

"You played right into her hands," Kagome scolded. "She was angling for a new bow all along."

InuYasha blinked, feeling suddenly foolish. "You think so?"

"She caved the instant you promised her the bow. Now she's going to be expecting us to pay her for good behavior."

Damn it, he'd blown it again. Toushi was still a couple of months shy of her fourth birthday, and she was already dancing circles around him. InuYasha scrubbed his hands over his face, wondering how was he going to manage when she was fourteen. Kagome was right, they couldn't let her get away with this.

"OK, how about this?" he suggested. "She can have the bow, but she has to work to keep it. Any time she hurts Noriko, we take it away for a while."

Kagome frowned, thinking it over. "Maybe. That does put it back on her. Yeah, I think we can work with that."

A few days later, InuYasha produced the promised hair bow. It was nearly half the size of Toushi's head, an immense confection of deep rose watered-silk ribbon edged with tiny artificial pearls and complemented with thin maroon and ivory velvet ribbons that interwove around the main bow and cascaded from its bottom to end in beaded tassels. Kagome was hard-pressed to gather up enough of Toushi's hair to hold it in place, a feature that just seemed to increase its magnificence in Toushi's eyes.

All went well for a few days, then Noriko ran afoul of Toushi again and Kagome took away the bow. The ensuing tantrum was the talk of the village for days; Kagome required Toushi to apologize to Noriko before she could have the bow back and Toushi was not about to comply. Toushi argued, screamed, cried, sulked, and tried appealing to her Papa behind Kagome's back, all to no avail. Two days later, a very surly Toushi apologized sullenly to her sister and finally got back her coveted bow.

"Gods, I hope that was worth it," InuYasha grumbled afterward. "I have never seen anyone so stubborn in my life. Where do you suppose she gets it?"

Kagome rolled her eyes and commented dryly, "I haven't a clue."

InuYasha stared at her suspiciously. "What?" Surely, she didn't think he was responsible.

-------------------------

Tsuchiya wasn't slow to notice that when Toushi tangled with Noriko, Toushi was the one who got into trouble. Feeling it was about time Toushi caught her proper share of grief, he found ways to entice Noriko into provoking her. It was great fun until the day Kagome caught him at it red-handed.

"How dare you use that baby to get your sister in trouble!" Kagome hissed, as she grabbed his ear and towed him to the corner. Once there, she lectured him at length on being mean and manipulative. He didn't remember much of the lecture; all that remained in his mind was the sensation of lightning shooting down his ear and the lingering smell of scorched fur.

Toushi, on the other hand, did not miss a word of the lecture. Being firmly of the opinion that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, she started setting Noriko up to run afoul of Tsuchiya while she innocently read a book on the other side of the room.

Noriko wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she was quick to notice that all she had to do was plop down next to one of her siblings and start fussing and they'd give her whatever they were holding to shut her up while looking daggers at the other sibling. She was well on her way to becoming lord of the household when Shippo caught on and informed Kagome.

Once alerted to Noriko's game, Kagome watched her closely until the next time she did it. The instant Noriko started screaming, Kagome whisked into the room and swooped her up. Tsuchiya, who was fully expecting another undeserved trip to the corner, watched wide-eyed as Kagome said, "Ohh, poor Noriko, getting all fussed up for nothing. You must be tired. Let's take you in for a nap."

The startled Noriko found herself alone in the crib in her mama's darkened room holding her blanket and wondering what had just happened.

Noriko took a lot of "naps" over the next few days before coming to the conclusion that there were things to be said for stealth.


	45. Chapter 45 The Prince and Pawn of Dogs

Chapter 45 - The Prince and Pawn of the Dogs 

Yes, that must be a contraction.

Her nerves as taut as a thrumming bowstring, Inazuma-hime paused momentarily in her restless pacing of her chamber and rubbed her belly while she reviewed her preparations. The tanuki were the weak link. She had cultivated them carefully for months, they trusted and revered her, but still, the strength of their courage was chancy at best. Jaken wasn't a great deal better. He postured and blustered impressively, but she suspected that, in a clinch, he would buckle. She wanted to rehearse the plan a few more times, but she was already on the edge of panicking her maid, Sanjuusan.

But, but, but - what she wouldn't give for a steady youkai behind her. She was more than prepared to play her script; she only hoped the team behind her could do theirs.

Round and round and round - she couldn't remember the last time she had been this keyed up. She checked the puppet she had hidden in an alcove of the room. It annoyed her that she didn't know what color to tint the fur; plans unraveled because of the details, but some things could not be done in advance. She ran the charm again that shifted the fur from white to black, silver to pewter. Would she have the opportunity to make the switch? Would the Lady fall for it? There was nothing more to do, but that didn't stop her from fretting. The sooner this was done, the better.

There was a tentative knock on the door.

"Come," she said curtly.

Sanjuusan shuffled into the room, her eyes wide and her fur fluffed, carrying Inazuma-hime's afternoon meal.

"Hime," she said anxiously, bowing quickly, then laying out the food.

Inazuma-hime studied her maid through cold, calculating eyes, looking for signs of weakness.

Sanjuusan shivered under the scrutiny, but continued through her duties. When all was arranged, she bowed again and said, "Hime?" asking for further instructions.

"It's time," Inazuma-hime said.

Sanjuusan's eyes grew even more frightened, but she only said, 'Yes, Hime."

"You remember what to do?" Inazuma-hime asked softly.

"Yes, Hime." It was a faint whisper; the girl was frozen in her terror, only half there, as she looked down, unseeing, at the floor.

This would not do. Inazuma-hime lifted the maid's chin, forcing her to look in the eyes. "Sanjuusan," she said earnestly, "I need you."

Tears sparkled in Sanjuusan's eyes as she struggled to pull herself together. "Yes, Hime."

Inazuma-hime looked into the frightened brown eyes, searching deeply, then released her maid.

"Good enough. Now, go."

Sanjuusan bowed quickly, then left to pass word that Inazuma-hime was in labor.

"Are you really going to trust that tanuki?" Jaken asked, tugging jealously at her robe.

"I don't see why not," Inazuma-hime replied. "I'm trusting you."

"That is not the same thing at all," Jaken said indignantly.

"Isn't it?" Inazuma-hime murmured, looking coolly at Jaken.

Jaken glanced quickly away, looking hurt and muttering sullenly.

Inazuma-hime bit her lip and turned away to resume her pacing. She wasn't helping anything by taking her nerves out on her retainers. Soon enough. Soon enough, she could release her pent-up ferocity.

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Sesshomaru left a narrow ravine to fly to the top of a mountain that overlooked his mother's palace. From there, he could see the grounds clearly: the manor at the center, the courtyards sprinkled about it with their formal gardens, the walls and watch towers, all manned by guards from the Forest Dogs. Mother, and therefore by extension, Karimaru, was not taking any chances; the guard was triple what Sesshomaru remembered as normal staffing. Within the walls, everything seemed to be tranquil. Courtiers strolled the paths and sat on benches in the gardens, servants trotted by on their errands. Still, a cloud of youki hovered over and through the palace, its aura crackling with a sense of barely contained aggressions.

The irony was inescapable. After years of assiduously avoiding the palace, Sesshomaru found himself in a virtual orbit around it. His last encounter with Inazuma-hime had disturbed him more deeply than he cared to admit. She didn't know Mother, not the way he did, and her recklessness could ruin her.

"_Don't be simple_," she had snapped at him the last time they spoke. As he stood staring at the palace, the thought that came to his mind was, "One can also find trouble being too clever."

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Inazuma-hime panted and shifted uncomfortably. She chose to whelp her pups as a dog, for the relative ease of it as much as for strategy. She was currently the size of a small horse, a densely furred black dog with silver frosting the end of each hair, prick ears, a supple bushy tail and glowing moonstone gray eyes. Jagged indigo stripes graced her cheeks, looking like the after light of lightning bolts against a black cloud. Nestled against her were four pups, the little bitch and three of her brothers, each about the size of a human newborn. Their colors ranged from blued steel through a burnished pewter to a shimmering white with a black undercoat. Two more pups had yet to make their appearance, the last known dog and his undetected brother.

The Lady was present, arriving soon after Sanjuusan's announcement of the onset of labor. She served as midwife, for all appearances the image of solicitous sympathy as she stroked Inazuma-hime's fur and murmured encouragement. The mask only dropped when she caught each newborn pup and coolly assessed it before passing it to Inazuma-hime's protective custody.

Inazuma-hime growled softly, deep in her throat. Treacherous bitch, let's just see how much longer I let you meddle with my litter.

The Lady looked at her sardonically. "Was that actually a growl? I thought I told you no more of that nonsense."

Inazuma-hime lifted her head higher and growled again, pushing back. The jagged stripes on her face flickered, lightning from a distant storm.

The next pup began his path into the world.

The Lady's golden eyes flickered back, flashing her own warning. "Don't even think about giving me trouble," she said softly, dangerously.

Inazuma-hime checked the arriving pup; it was the last of her identified sons. She looked insolently back at the Lady, revealing her teeth, pushing again.

The Lady sniffed dismissively and turned her attention to the arriving pup, ignoring Inazuma-hime's implied threat.

Inazuma-hime worked through delivering the pup and rested briefly, panting. She thumped her tail sharply on the floor, alerting Sanjuusan that she was about to move. She heard Sanjuusan gasp faintly and saw her do a concealment charm from the corner of her eye.

"Another fine dog," the Lady said approvingly, holding up the latest pup. She inspected him closely, checking his limbs for strength, then placed him close to his mother.

"That should be the litter," the Lady said, preparing to get up. Inazuma-hime gasped slightly as the last pup began to move.

"What's this?" the Lady said, her eyes narrowing as she knelt again. "You thought to hide one? Let me see what you have here."

Inazuma-hime growled again, a hysterical note entering her voice. She grabbed the Lady's forearm in her mouth and pushed her away. Her tail thumped twice.

"I don't think so," the Lady snapped, ripping her arm loose and slapping Inazuma-hime's nose sharply.

The last pup slid out and the Lady picked him up. Inazuma-hime snatched him back and tucked him behind her as she rose, snarling, to her feet to confront the Lady.

The Lady snapped upright and summoned a swirl of energy about her, then struck, sending a bolt of raw electricity at Inazuma-hime.

Inazuma-hime nearly laughed; truly the Lady had forgotten who she was dealing with. She absorbed the electricity easily, dispersing it through her fur where it sparked and hopped, scintillating, across the tips of her fluffed out fur, then she summoned it again, enfolding it around a bolt of her own as she leapt on the Lady, biting down on her arm to release a blinding, deafening thunderbolt. The roof and two walls blew away to let in a violent swirl of wind that ripped around the room.

The Lady was blown against the far wall in a crackling nimbus of electricity and youki, her right arm lacerated by Inazuma-hime's bite. Shaken, she regained her feet and started her own transformation.

Behind her, Inazuma-hime could hear Sanjuusan swoop in to exchange the last pup for the puppet they had prepared. Inazuma-hime kept the Lady engaged as Sanjuusan slipped out of the broken wall.

Ignoring her injury, the Lady walked stiff-legged and bristling toward Inazuma-hime, her glowing eyes never flinching. Inazuma-hime refused to drop her eyes before the Lady, refused to belly down. She shifted her footing slightly, correcting her balance.

Growling, the Lady dropped to a sudden crouch and leapt close for a fast snap at Inazuma-hime's throat, then dodged sideways.

Inazuma-hime lunged back, bumping hard shoulder to shoulder, throwing off the Lady's balance. The Lady snapped at her legs as she passed, scoring a light slash, but missing the grab.

Inazuma-hime turned, light-footed and supple, to face the Lady's next lunge. She glided past the Lady, cool-eyed and competent, assessing her opponent.

The Lady's eyes narrowed in speculation as she studied Inazuma-hime. This was not the same flighty scatterbrain she'd had underfoot for months. She shifted her weight, testing the strength of her blasted foreleg. The damage was noticeable, there was no way she could dodge as quickly as Inazuma-hime right now. Youki then, vortex to vortex. It was time to see what the bitchling could command.

She reached within herself, touched her vortex, felt its strength as the gyre gathered force and speed. Flickers of energy sparked from it, excited by the battle challenge. This summoning of force should draw a response from Inazuma-hime; inexperienced bitches often lost their heads to a building battle gyre, ramping up their power past their ability to control it.

The Lady sniffed the air as Inazuma-hime built her gyre, smelling the buildup of youki and ozone as Inazuma-hime summoned energy from the clouds. Inazuma-hime matched the Lady, no more, and then simply watched, wary and insolent.

So, truly not as flighty as she'd have me believe. The Lady formed a pair of quick energy bolts and loosed them, trying to rattle Inazuma-hime's composure.

Inazuma-hime deflected them easily and shot a large jolt back, also probing her opponent's temper.

The Lady deflected it and drew her ears back, becoming annoyed.

Inazuma-hime's saucy demeanor became even more insolent. She grinned, showing her array of strong white teeth.

The Lady limped to one side, making her injury seem worse than it was. Inazuma-hime's ears pricked as she watched the Lady move; clearly she was assessing the outcome of a lunge right now.

The temptation proved to be too much. Inazuma-hime leapt for the Lady's throat; the Lady rolled with it and wound up on top with Inazuma-hime pinned on her back, the Lady's jaws on her throat. The younger bitch fought the grip briefly, then submitted, conceding the match. The Lady remained the alpha bitch, for now.

The Lady released Inazuma-hime and stepped back. Inazuma-hime rolled to her feet and returned to her litter, chastened but still bristling.

The Lady resumed her human form and stepped toward Inazuma-hime to check the condition of the litter. Four little dogs and one bitch cuddled close to Inazuma-hime, crying for her warmth and sustenance; one dog lay still on the floor nearby, limp and unmoving.

"Little fool," the Lady snapped. "That stupid outburst just cost you a son. Remember that the next time you challenge me."

Inazuma-hime nosed the still form, then pulled her other pups closer, the picture of regret. She watched the Lady leave the room and thought after her: Great fool, it went exactly as planned. That still form is only my puppet. My son has been successfully spirited away.

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The sudden explosion that rocked the palace and sent roof tiles flying nearly pulled Sesshomaru out of hiding into a headlong dash to the palace to protect his mate. He checked himself with great difficulty; then watched the contending auras as the disturbance flared quickly, but just as soon dissipated, leaving both auras intact.

Sesshomaru hovered in the air for a time, then drifted back to the mountain, his nerves jangling. The auras he had just seen fighting were those of his mother and his mate. What the Hell did that bitch Inazuma think she was doing? He remembered her remark about staging a stillbirth. Was this how she chose to do it? She must be insane. He had to find out what was going on inside.

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Just one more unremarkable servant of all the unremarkable servants in the palace, Sanjuusan bustled down a corridor carrying a bundle of bedding, as she did most days. There was nothing unusual in this, yet Karimaru's interest was piqued.

"Girl," he called, summoning her.

Sanjuusan whisked around a corner, apparently not hearing him; Karimaru thought he heard a faint gasp as she rounded the corner.

Frowning, Karimaru followed her. She was halfway down the corridor when Karimaru turned the corner.

"Girl!" he called again.

Sanjuusan stopped and turned, still holding the bundle of bedding. Karimaru caught the barest flash of anxious dark eyes, then the servant girl lowered her gaze and bowed respectfully.

"Karimaru-sama, I am at your disposal," she said softly, still looking at the floor.

Karimaru cocked his head and studied the tanuki girl. "Aren't you the maid who is assigned to the princess?"

"Yes, Karimaru-sama."

"This is bedding from her room?"

"Yes, Karimaru-sama"

"It smells of pups."

"Yes, Karimaru-sama. Inazuma-hime has delivered her litter."

"Shouldn't you be attending her right now?"

"Oh, but I am, Karimaru-sama. I'm fetching fresh bedding." Sanjuusan's eyes remained respectfully lowered.

Well trained and respectful, or dissembling, wondered Karimaru. "May I see the bedding?"

Sanjuusan's eyelids flickered. "If Karimaru-sama wishes." She stood still and allowed him to nose through the quilts. Six pups, one bitch and five dogs. The scent of one dog was stronger than the others. Once again, there was no particular reason why this should not be so, but Karimaru remained suspicious.

"You don't mind if I accompany you back to the princess's suite, do you? I wish to offer my congratulations."

"As Karimaru-sama wishes," Sanjuusan replied. "But surely Karimaru-sama knows the Lady does not welcome dogs that close to pups so young."

"I know my boundaries," Karimaru-sama replied.

Sanjuusan bowed again, exchanged the bedclothes and led the way back to Inazuma-hime's suite.

They met the Lady as she left the whelping room. Her golden eyes flickered over them, hard with displeasure.

"My Lady, may I offer my congratulations on six fine pups?" Karimaru said in his most courtly manner, bowing.

"Five, actually," the Lady said curtly. "The little fool killed one in that outburst."

"Most regrettable," Karimaru replied smoothly as he watched the trembling tanuki maid enter the room.

"She won't do it again soon," the Lady sniffed.

"Or ever?" Karimaru asked delicately. "The wet nurse..."

"Send her home," the Lady replied, "with due rewards for her trouble. Our young princess will need handling, but she's not as hopeless as I believed."

"My Lady must be pleased,"

"Mmmm. We shall see." With that, the Lady gestured Karimaru to join her, then walked bristly away to arrange repairs.

Karimaru walked with her for a short ways, then excused himself for another duty. He made his way back to Inazuma-hime's hallway, performed a concealment charm, then remained to watch her door.

A tanuki of the general staff appeared a short time later and announced himself. Sanjuusan poked her nose around the screen.

"The Lady has arranged for another nursery while these rooms are repaired," the staff servant announced.

"As the Lady wishes. I will prepare the princess to move as soon as possible," Sanjuusan replied.

The staff servant leaned close for a quick whispered comment. Sanjuusan's eyes flickered slightly, perhaps to where Karimaru stood, then she nodded slightly, whispered back and slipped back into the princess's rooms.

The staff servant left immediately for his next task, passing right by Karimaru without the slightest hint of knowledge of his presence.

Karimaru stared after the tanuki, pondering. Did he or did he not know he was there? Tanuki abilities were difficult to assess. Tanuki were timid and diffident; one seldom saw what they were truly capable of until they were pressed to extremity. The tales of these incidents spoke of more depth and subtlety than most accorded tanuki. Assuredly, they were clever, perhaps too clever. And that little bitch Inazuma-hime: he had long suspected she was not as featherbrained as she acted. She was up to something and was using the palace tanuki as her agents. The sooner he got a leash on her, the better.

Sanjuusan turned from the door to speak to her mistress.

"I heard," Inazuma-hime said. "Fetch me that basket by the wall. The one that holds futons."

Sanjuusan bowed and complied. She unloaded the large wicker basket then dragged it to Inazuma-hime. Inazuma-hime deftly lined the basket with cushions and a quilt, then she laid her pups in it, one by one, cuddling each briefly before she settled it in.

"Mistress," Sanjuusan said very softly as she handed Inazuma-hime a large coverlet to wrap the basket, "Karimaru-sama watches the door."

"Does he?" Inazuma-hime murmured thoughtfully as she tied the corners of the coverlet over the basket into a pair of interlocked square knots. Karimaru had confronted Sanjuusan after she had slipped the fifth son away. Karimaru had come here to learn what the Lady knew. Karimaru was everywhere, with his nose in everything, however all he knew did not make its way to the Lady. Inazuma-hime had already tested that. Inazuma-hime wasn't entirely sure where his loyalties lay, but he, more than anyone in the palace, had the capability to make or break her designs. She must treat with him.

Inazuma-hime growled softly, deep in her throat. Although she knew, and had known for a long time, that she must deal with Karimaru, she still did not have a measure of the dog. He concealed his motives as much as she did. His public face was completely invented, much as was hers. She had to treat with this dog without tipping either of their hands to the Lady. She growled again, frustration clawing at her. This would be the work of many months. Right now, he lurked outside her door, calculating and suspicious. How much did he know? How much had he guessed? She had a son who was still not settled and she could not afford to let him fall into Karimaru's hands.

Her communication lines were compromised while Karimaru lurked outside her door. He could glean too much just from who came and went. How was she going to pass her warnings and instructions?

A short time later, a servant came to conduct Inazuma-hime to her new suite. Inazuma-hime transformed back into her dog form and collected the basket in her mouth to carry it. As she trotted by Karimaru's position, she looked directly at him, growled softly, and sashayed on, her tail waving saucily behind her.

Come on, Karimaru, follow me. I'm the dangerous one. Whatever's up is to be found with me. She caught the faintest flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Good. He was still locked on her.

Karimaru followed Inazuma-hime to her new suite and listened at the door as she harangued the servant with a lengthy list of complaints and demands about the rooms. Finally, the servant escaped, bowing backward out the door then collapsing against the wall briefly to catch his breath.

"A pox on bitches of all ages and shades," he muttered fervently under his breath before trotting off to attend to Inazuma-hime's demands.

Karimaru snorted softly under his breath, laughing silently in agreement with the hapless servant. Few things were more difficult to serve than a bitch.

The suite soon grew quiet. Karimaru heard Inazuma-hime direct Sanjuusan in a number of tasks involved with settling the litter, but nothing more occurred. Hours passed as Karimaru waited for Inazuma-hime's next message to emerge. Sanjuusan popped her head around the screen from time to time, looked about, then withdrew. Karimaru still wasn't sure whether or not she could see him or if she was waiting for someone else.

Slowly, a nagging thought started to bubble up from the back of his mind. The bitch is playing with me. There's just enough activity to keep me here. Her message is already out. When? The Lady's staff servant! Did she have the entire staff under her sway? Damn!

Think! What would be of critical importance to a bitch who had just whelped? The disposition of her pups. But she had them all with her... Unless... Unless that "dead" pup was very much alive and soon to be hidden away, outside of the palace and the Lady's influence. If he could intercept that pup, he would have the key to controlling Inazuma-hime. Karimaru made a shadow of himself then slipped away to gather the palace guards.

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Sanjuusan peeped around the screen again, then said, "He's gone, Hime. There's just a shadow out there."

"Damn him!" Inazuma-hime swore. He'd figured it out. She had to move that pup now before he had a chance to organize.

The orders regarding the hidden pup were: 'Move when you have word the den is secure.' That wouldn't do anymore; Karimaru would have the entire palace sealed up in his cordon very soon. She needed a massive distraction. She smiled slowly; there was nothing quite like a bitch in a temper to stir things up.

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A thunderclap exploded from Inazuma-hime's suite, rocking the foundations of the palace and deafening half the inhabitants. Sanjuusan bolted through the doorway, wailing, and streaked through the corridors on all fours, her fur standing on end and her eyes bulging in terror.

Inazuma-hime strode into the hallway and roared, "**What is ****wrong**** with you curs? I ordered comforters for the nursery ****hours**** ago and I haven't seen a single servant since! I want those comforters **_**NOW**_**!**"

She reached up and spread her hand over her head, calling for the surging electric power of the clouds swirling around the palace, drawing it in until she glowed, a black shadow seen within a sparking white nimbus, then she released it, sending it back to the clouds in an incandescent bolt of lightning that blasted another hole in the roof. Thunder crashed and boomed down the halls, a palpable force that smashed courtiers against the walls and sent the servants tumbling helplessly, their burdens flying about them like leaves in a gale.

Sanjuusan skittered around the final corner to the servants' quarters and slammed headlong into the cluster of alarmed servants that came spilling out the doors at the first thunderclap.

"C'c'comforters! H'hime, c'comforters!" she gibbered, pushing servants here and there. "Cushions, she wants cushions and brushes and warm water and towels and a brazier and ... and ... oh dear, oh dear ..."

As tanuki scattered in all directions, dodging around courtiers and tripping over themselves in their haste, Sanjuusan pushed the rest of the way into the servants' quarters and slipped into a chamber nestled far in the back.

Roku, a tanuki elder, and Nijuuichi were there with the pup and the puppet which had been salvaged from Inazuma-hime's original suite.

"We have problems," Sanjuusan cried, as she entered the room. "The pup has to leave now."

"Now!" Roku exclaimed. "We haven't heard from the den yet. What happened?"

"Karimaru-sama knows," Sanjuusan replied softly. "We have to get him out of the palace now or not at all."

Nijuuichi plucked at his fur with frightened distraction while Roku sucked in a hissing breath, thinking hard.

"Oba-san?" Sanjuusan asked her aunt, waiting for her direction.

"Bring Jaken to the service door," Roku told Nijuuichi, pushing him out the door, "His time to serve his Lady has come.

"As for you," Roku continued, turning to Sanjuusan as Nijuuichi left, "show me your best bird illusion."

"Birds? Oh ..." Sanjuusan took a handful of leaves from her sleeve and cast them in the air, conjuring the flickering wings and spinning shapes of a flock of swallows pursuing flies.

Roku nodded her approval. She turned to the basket holding the pup and, nipping off a pinch of his fur, used it to animate the puppet in an exact image of the living pup. She took the puppet to the service door and handed it off to Jaken and Nijuuichi, saying, "Inazuma-hime has entrusted you to take her son into hiding. You are to leave immediately. Nijuuichi knows the location."

"Hah! I knew her Highness would know my worth!" Jaken crowed triumphantly.

"Be wary, but bold," Roku advised them. "You will be pursued."

"If Inazuma-hime chose me for this, it's because she knows I am the youkai for this job," Jaken said proudly. Roku passed her bundle to them, and they slipped out the door into the chaos outside.

"He may think he can handle it, but I would never choose to be chased by Karimaru's hunting dogs," Roku remarked. She lifted the true pup from the basket and, placing a leaf on his forehead, cast an illusion charm that made him the image of a chamber pot. Turning toward the kitchen exit, she said to Sanjuusan, "Shall we?"

Sanjuusan snatched a bucket of offal on their way through the kitchen, then they made their way out the service door to the refuse heap. They saw Nijuuichi and Jaken take to the air and speed away to the north-east, heading toward the mountain ridges that edged the Lady's domain. A pack of Karimaru's guards rose soon afterward, transforming into brindle hounds that coursed, baying, after them.

Real swallows darted and wheeled over the refuse heap as the two tanuki watched Jaken, Nijuuichi and the pack vanish around a mountain peak. They turned lazily to their chores, dumping the offal bucket on the heap and overturning the "chamber pot".

"Now. Bring up your birds," Roku said softly, watching the perimeters of the deserted yard.

Sanjuusan fumbled with her leaves, then formed the illusion. The number of swallows circling the refuse heap multiplied.

"Hold my sleeve. I don't want us to get separated," Roku said, taking out her own leaves to cast a concealment charm. The air around them shimmered, then the two tanuki and their precious burden vanished, while illusory tanuki walked back to the kitchens. A moment later, the illusory swallows broke away from the main flock and skirted the edge of the palace to the south east, then descended the mountain in a meandering, swooping path.

One lone figure detached itself from the palace to pursue the swallows.

Sanjuusan chanced a look behind her and nearly faltered her spell in her alarm.

"It's Karimaru-sama," she gasped to Roku. "He's following us."

"I thought he might," Roku replied. "Send your birds hard left and down toward that meadow." As the swallow illusion doubled back on itself, then swooped hard down the mountain, Roku accelerated straight and down, heading for the trees.

Karimaru followed the birds, drawing his sword as he went. Roku and Sanjuusan darted into the trees, then skimmed rapidly between the trunks, losing themselves deep in the forest.

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Jaken brandished the Staff of Two Heads wildly, blasting streams of flame all about him as Nijuuichi slowed abruptly then plummeted straight down for a stomach-dropping thirty feet before banking hard to the left in a steep dive toward a ravine. The dogs pursuing them scattered in confusion to avoid the flames, then circled to regroup and resume the hunt. Baying, they plunged after Nijuuichi as he shot into the ravine.

"Take that, you fools!" Jaken yelled, standing up on Nijuuichi's back and shooting more flames behind him. "Feel the wrath of the Staff! I'll burn you all from the air!"

Nijuuichi dodged quickly around an outcropping on the cliff, then climbed steeply to rise over a waterfall. Jaken was nearly thrown from his back by the abrupt measures.

"What are you doing?" he screeched as Nijuuichi leveled off just as abruptly to skim over the roiling water of the small river. "I was nearly thrown off, you idiot!"

"Well, you'd better hang on tighter," Nijuuichi replied, "Here they come again."

The dogs swooped down from overhead, hanging just out of the range of the staff as they coursed along, pacing Nijuuichi and preventing him from rising out of the ravine. Nijuuichi looked from side to side, seeking another path out, but nothing offered itself.

They rounded a corner, then the ravine abruptly forked; Nijuuichi dodged right, barely avoiding a collision with the cliff. Several of the dogs were shunted to the left branch, a few collided into the cliffs with great force. When Jaken dared to look back again, there were only two dogs behind them.

"We're losing them!" he crowed to Nijuuichi. "There's only two left."

"Hang on," Nijuuichi said, "I'm taking us out." He rose steeply and popped out of the canyon, then skimmed the mountainside. Three dogs suddenly appeared beside him from the left ravine; one swooped in close beside them while the other two accelerated to cut them off.

Jaken brandished the staff again, shooting flames at the dog beside him. "Faster!" he yelled at Nijuuichi, "They're cutting us off!"

Nijuuichi banked hard right and shot down the mountainside, then swooped straight up again. The dogs closing in on him shot underneath them. Nijuuichi climbed desperately, seeking altitude, as the dogs reformed the pack and spread out to encircle them. Several of them took human form and shook out a net between them for the capture.

As they closed in again on the exhausted Nijuuichi, a large white dog charged around the mountain and plunged into their midst, attacking them with cold fury. He scattered them quickly, then took human form, holding a gleaming sword as he flew protection beside them. The Forest Dogs retreated back to the palace to carry the tale to their Lord.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken cried joyfully. "You saved us!"

"Come with me," Sesshomaru directed, leading them to a landing.

"Why were the Forest Dogs chasing you?" he asked, ignoring Jaken's effusive praise of the rescue. "I do not want to have shown myself in the area for a small matter."

"Oh, no, my Lord, this is of the utmost importance," Jaken declared. "This tanuki and I are entrusted with one of Inazuma-hime's pups. We were taking him into hiding when the Forest Dogs found us."

"Fools! Could you possibly have been any more obvious leaving the palace? What were you thinking?" Sesshomaru snapped.

"We had no time to hide," Jaken complained. "Karimaru-sama knew we were coming."

"Hmph. You made a big enough mess of it." Sesshomaru said coldly. "Let me see this pup. I must know how he fares before we continue."

Nijuuichi held out a small form wrapped in a blanket for Sesshomaru's inspection. Sesshomaru unwrapped the blanket and quickly inspected the contents.

"This isn't a pup, it's a puppet," Sesshomaru said. "You were a diversion. The real pup is elsewhere." The big question was where?

-------------------------------

Roku slowed down as the forest grew thicker, then came to ground in a sheltered hollow under a bare-limbed plum tree. Cautiously, she released the concealment charm, then the tanuki checked on the condition of the pup. He was growing restive, seeking blindly for his mother and sustenance.

"What do we do now?" Sanjuusan asked plaintively. "We're a long ways from any meeting point."

"You come with me." The tanuki flinched and spun to look into the face and sword of Karimaru. He quirked an eyebrow at them and asked sardonically, "You surely didn't think to deceive the Lord of the Forest Dogs in his own forest?"

Sanjuusan stood protectively in front of Roku, who was holding the pup, and took up a pair of leaves to work some magic in their defense. Despite the act of defiance, both tanuki were trembling violently.

Karimaru plucked the leaves from Sanjuusan's hand before she could gather her thoughts for the spell, saying, "Now, my dears, that isn't necessary. I don't intend you any harm. I probably won't even tell our Lady about your little excursion. But I must insist that you hand the pup over to my keeping." Karimaru's eyes never left the tanuki, they had no chance to reach for another charm to distract him. They looked at each other quickly. Later. They would just have to stick close to the pup and wait for Karimaru's vigilance to drop.

With a little more prompting, Karimaru got Roku to hand the pup to him. Sheathing his sword, he took to the air, the two tanuki close by his side.

"You really don't need to accompany me," Karimaru suggested blandly.

"Please, Karimaru-sama, we were entrusted by Inazuma-hime with her son's safety and welfare. We cannot leave just yet," Roku replied.

She was being remarkably stubborn for a tanuki. Very well, they could join their little master in his prison. Even the tanuki would be hard-pressed to find a way around Karimaru's defenses.

-------------------------------

The one detail about the diversion that Sesshomaru did not like was that Karimaru had not been in the pursuing pack. This meant he suspected Jaken was only a distraction and he intended to find the real pup himself. It was bad enough that Karimaru had Rin; Sesshomaru did not intend to let him collect his son also.

After hiding Nijuuichi and Jaken in a safe place, he took once again to the sky to hover high over the mountains surrounding the palace, sniffing out Karimaru's aura.

Karimaru flew low between the mountains, working his way up through a narrow ravine and over a rubble-strewn pass, then he descended into a secluded valley. He flew to the top of a high cliff and paused to inspect his surroundings. When he was satisfied that he was unobserved, he descended to the valley floor and lifted a barrier. A manor house and garden appeared briefly against the cliff, Karimaru and his companions passed through, then the image of a forest glade returned, hiding the manor once more.

High above, hidden in the glare of the blazing sun, Sesshomaru watched his quarry enter his den.

"Ah, so this is your hidden lair," he murmured. "I finally have you." He flew to the barrier and slashed at it, testing its strength. The barrier was like trying to cut a magnetic field; he couldn't touch it. Any blow aimed at it simply skittered off or slid to the side. His swords proved as useless as his claws against this device. Frustrated, he stared at the empty-seeming glade for a long time before conceding that he was not going to be able to penetrate the barrier. For this, he needed InuYasha.


	46. Chapter 46 In the Hall of the Forest Lor

Chapter 46 - In the Halls of the Forest Lord

About two weeks after the great snowstorm that collapsed the granary, there was a week of warm, spring-like weather. Snow melted in great streams from all of the rooftops and turned the village pathways and alleys into muddy quagmires. As the water dripped from the remains of the roof into the granary and ran throughout the building seeking an exit, the villagers discovered the back corners where they had placed their great grain urns were not as sheltered as they had hoped. Water dripped and flowed into the urns and began to spoil the rice and millet that must sustain them until the next harvest. A roof repair could not wait until better conditions, so a team was quickly assembled to organize the job.

InuYasha, Eiichi and Rokuro set out with sledges and a team of horses to drag the great timbers in from the forest. The horses pulled while InuYasha guided the unwieldy logs over obstacles and across ravines. Once the timbers arrived at the granary, Hideo marked and supervised the shaping of the beams and columns, hopping around on his crutch and moaning about the way his injury prevented him from doing the work himself.

Despite Hideo's complaints about the slowness of the work, in a few short days, it was time to raise the roof. This was easily the most fascinating venue in the village and a large number of the neighbors came to watch the men slipping and stumbling in the sodden, sloppy mud, shouting and cursing, as they arranged the beams and columns and the props and ropes needed to lift the huge timbers into place.

The entire roof and one wall needed to be replaced, but, for now, the repair involved a wall section of three new columns, a brace for the ridge beam, and connecting beams that tied the ridge beam to the new wall section. Some of the men were arrayed around the new wall section, equipped with mauls, wedges and pegs, while the burlier ones were assigned to the push-props and ropes that would control the motion of the beams. Until the pegs were placed to lock the structure together, it would be very unstable.

After reinforcing the ridge beam, they started with the wall section. Six men with poles stood inside the granary to check the motion of the wall if it tottered too far while the main gang tilted it up into place from the outside. After a couple of very exciting moments when the wall twisted slightly along its length and threatened to collapse two-thirds of the way up, it settled into place and swayed sightly as the men on the ropes struggled gamely in the mud to hold it steady.

InuYasha was supposed to slide the new crossbeams over the wall and lay the ends on the ridge beam, then hold them steady until they could be pegged into place. The first one was crucial, and it wasn't going well. The cross beam hung up on a knot on the final stretch and refused to move. InuYasha was already stretched up on tiptoes when this happened and he simply could not brute force it up any farther. He teetered with it for a few moments, muttering curses under his breath, then allowed it to slip back until he was firmly on the ground again with the butt of the beam cradled in his hands.

"All right," he muttered, "if you want to play it that way..." He crouched down then surged back up, pushing powerfully with arms and legs and half-threw the beam into place past the knot. The beam landed on the ridgepole with a crash that rocked the whole building. The unfastened wall swayed alarmingly as the men on the rope struggled to get it under control. InuYasha leapt forward to steady one of the columns and finally, the wall settled. Hideo stumped in on his crutch to inspect the alignment of the wall.

"Eh, it's no good," he declared. "The wall is leaning sideways. We need to knock it back straight before we peg it. InuYasha-sama, get up there and hold that crossbeam in place while we fix it."

Inuyasha jumped up to the top of the wall and wrapped himself around the intersection of the wall and the crossbeam, and the men on the ropes maintained tension while Eiichi attacked the wall with a maul to knock it straight. The wall groaned and snapped as it was adjusted; finally it was square once more.

"Good!" Hideo shouted. "Let's get this thing pegged before anything else happens."

InuYasha nudged the crossbeam into its niche, then fumbled in his shirt for the peg that would hold it in place. The wall swayed again as InuYasha tried to wiggle the beams into alignment for the peg.

"Come on, you bastard, line up," he growled, shoving on the peg, then banging it with his fist. The crossbeam shifted suddenly, pinching his finger in the niche.

"Shit!" he snapped, yanking his hand loose. The wall swayed again and the peg popped loose and fell to the ground. InuYasha scrambled to hold beams together until the men on the ropes had control. He fished in his shirt again.

"Ah, damn it!" he hissed. "I need another peg," he called down to the crew below.

"I got it," Tsuchiya called from the sidelines, where he and the other boys were watching avidly and improving upon their vocabularies. He darted out into the construction zone, scooped up the peg and tossed it up. He threw it too wide and InuYasha stretched out to try to snatch it from the air, losing control of the beams in his custody.

"Oh, crap!" InuYasha scrambled to seize the crossbeam, but it was too late. The wall swayed again, the crossbeam slipped down in a rush then jammed on the knot. Wataru lost his footing in the mud as the shock from the sudden stop of the crossbeam translated itself through the wall and down the ropes. With a loud groan, the wall twisted majestically, then crashed to the ground pulling everyone manning the ropes off their feet. InuYasha jumped free only to have the crossbeam come down on him, bashing him hard on the back of the head and sending him sprawling face down in the mud.

The crowd of people watching the construction clustered around InuYasha to check him out.

"Papa?"

"InuYasha-sama? Are you all right?"

"How bad is he?"

"Well, he's still breathing."

"That's an awful lot of blood."

"InuYasha-sama?"

InuYasha continued to lay unmoving in the mud, a red blossom of blood spreading through his hair. The cross beam lay across his back, pinning him down at the shoulders. Hideo hobbled over on his crutch and gave the scene a quick look.

"Tsuchiya-kun, you'd best go fetch your mother," he told the terrified boy crouched beside his father. As Tsuchiya darted off into the village toward the shrine, he turned to the rest of the men and said, "All right, lads, let's get this beam off him."

InuYasha was waking up when Kagome arrived with her medical kit.

"Don't move," she ordered as he started to try to get up. "Let me check you out first." He ignored her, so she pushed him back down and put a knee on his shoulder, then brushed his hair aside so she could inspect the bleeding knot on his head.

The whole back of his head was swollen and puffy, with a broad gash in the center of the swelling. Kagome probed gingerly around the gash, feeling for bone damage. It was hard to tell, but there did seem to be a dent in his skull.

"Ow!" he complained as she probed.

"How does the rest of you feel?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"Arms, legs, back, anything else hurt?"

"Ummmm..."

Thanking all the gods for his demonic constitution, Kagome risked turning him over to check his eyes and ears. He squinted at the brightness of the sun and looked up at her vaguely.

"Track my finger," she said, moving her hand back and forth, up and down. His eyes followed her finger with difficulty.

"What happened?" she asked, then waved down the audience when they jumped in eagerly to fill her in. "No, no, let him answer. I want to know how much he remembers."

InuYasha's eyes wandered for a few moments as he gathered his thoughts. He frowned in concentration, then said, "Ah ... we were ... um ... putting up the wall. Had the crossbeam and I, um, I uh, missed the peg. Lost grip. Fell apart. Came down on me."

The other men nodded confirmation. That was good.

"Have I ever told you how very beautiful you are?" InuYasha suddenly asked.

Not so good. Their language of love consisted of subtle gestures and quiet moments. He rarely said anything out loud and never in public.

"All right, gentlemen, I think that settles it," Kagome declared briskly. "He's going straight home to bed for at least a day. That beam really addled him."

---------------------------------

"Eh, Rin-chan, hold the fur more tightly. You can't let it feed from your hands until it has bound to the silk. Fire-rat fur does not like to be restrained, and it will unravel and drift away if you are not careful."

"Yes, Okaa-san," Rin replied. Frowning in concentration, her tongue tucked into the corner of her mouth, she tried once again to get the unruly fibers to cling to the silk and spin smoothly into yarn for the loom.

Karimaru's gentle, motherly mate had taken Rin under her wing, just like all the other inhabitants of the hidden compound. Since, "Humans have clever hands," she had decided to show Rin how to spin fire-rat fur to keep her occupied during her time as a hostage. It was a tricky operation, one that required all of Rin's concentration to perform.

The Lady of the Forest Dogs watched Rin handle the fur and silk for a while. The fur sparked and snapped as it was worked into the silk that bound it, then spun into a fine yarn.

Rin held up her next length of yarn for inspection. "Is it good now, Okaa-san?"

The Lady smiled her approval. "That's better. Do you see how the silk is binding to the fur to become one thread? In a couple of days, they will meld fully and turn red."

"Oh, like InuYasha-sama's kimono!" Rin exclaimed. She sighed as the pleasure of getting it right faded into a longing to return to her people that surged in her heart with the memory. It had been nearly a year, and the doubts that haunted her continued to ebb and flow like the tide as she waited in captivity. How could it be that Sesshomaru-sama had still not found her? Had she offended him with her pertness? Did he still care?

Her hands trembled as she swallowed a sob. That great, gaping, empty ache in her chest grew and threatened to engulf her completely. Still, it wouldn't do to be so miserable near Okaa-san, who had gone out of her way to be kind to her during her captivity.

"Okaa-san, my eyes are getting blurry. I'll pick this up again when I'm seeing better," she said softly.

The dog woman looked at Rin's tear-filled eyes and nodded. Rin carefully put away her silk and wool, then fled the room.

Later that afternoon, an unusual amount of commotion announced Karimaru's return to the compound. Several voices spoke at once, Karimaru's smooth baritone, Okaa-san's soft questions and exclamations, and the anxious insistent coaxing of a pair of shrill voices Rin had never heard before. Mingled with the adult voices was the sound of a very young baby crying fitfully.

Rin slipped on an over-robe and walked quickly to the entrance hall to see what was going on.

Karimaru stood in the room with his mate and two tanuki women Rin had never seen before. Now that he was no longer in the court of the Lady of the Sky Dogs, he had dropped his bland, guileless court mask to reveal the thoughtful, deeply worried man beneath it.

"...much to young to be out in the world. What was she thinking?" Okaa-san said as she fussed over the baby in his arms. She took it from him and cuddled it closely.

Rin blinked and stared. The baby was actually a very large, if very young, puppy, so young its eyes were still closed. The short fluffy fur was a blend of a black undercoat and a white overcoat that shimmered hypnotically as Okaa-san shifted the puppy to inspect him.

"Hime-sama has a special place prepared for him, with everything he needs," the older of the two tanuki said insistently. "We must take him there now."

"I'm afraid not," Karimaru responded. "Your hime is much too dangerous at the moment. It is in the best interest of all of us to have a way to restrain her."

"Please, Karimaru-sama, use something else," the younger tanuki pleaded. "Please let us take the little prince to his caretakers. They have what he needs waiting for him. Have mercy!"

"You can care for him?" Karimaru asked his mate.

"A pup this young can summon milk from any bitch of whelping age. Of course I can care for him," she replied.

"It's settled, then. He stays here." Karimaru told the tanuki, who exchanged grim looks, but remained silent.

"Would you also find accommodations for our other new guests?" he asked his mate as she prepared to leave the room.

"But hime-sama..." the younger tanuki said anxiously.

"She will know soon enough," Karimaru replied. "It will give her comfort to know such faithful servants still watch her son."

"Come with me," Okaa-san said. "Let's get you settled." When she met Rin at the door, she said, "Rin-chan, you know where everything is. Would you come help me?"

---------------------------------

InuYasha woke up in his bedroom. The pounding in his head had dampened to a background rumble and his back and arms were now merely stiff from inactivity. Stretching to relieve the kinks, he opened his eyes and looked around. The shades were closed, making the light in the room dim, and it was very quiet. In fact, it was partly the unusual quiet that had roused him in the first place. He heard some gentle rustling near the hearth and got up to investigate.

Most of his clothes were gone, but his fire-rat kimono remained near, covering him like a blanket. He slipped it on and padded out of the room to the hearth.

Kagome looked up from where she was sorting laundry.

"Oh! You're up. How are you feeling?"

"A good deal better," he said, looking around. "Where are the kids?"

I sent them down to Sango for the day so you could rest," Kagome replied.

"Ah."

"It's giving me a chance to catch up with chores while I watch you. The laundry has gotten completely out of control."

InuYasha snorted softly. The laundry was always out of control, to hear her talk.

So, they had the whole house to themselves without the kids underfoot.

Kagome held up InuYasha's pants and scrutinized them for stains and wear.

InuYasha stepped behind her and nuzzled her neck below her left ear.

"If you're trying to charm back your pants..." she started.

"Mm, not yet," he replied. He worked his way down to her shoulder, then removed the pants from her hand.

She turned to face him. "Then what are you...?"

His mouth covered hers with a kiss as he dropped the pants behind her. He backed off slightly and lightly touched her lips again.

"No Tsuchiya jumping on us without warning," he murmured, his lips drifting to her jaw. "No night terrors from Toushi," he continued, trailing down to her throat as he untied her shirt. "No fussy, teething Noriko," he added as he opened her shirt to kiss her between the breasts. "It's just you and me, and here you are doing laundry." He reached around to unhook her bra. "Shame on you."

"It's not going to go away like this," she said in a last, feeble protest.

"It's never going away," he replied, scooping her up, "but this day will."

He carried her back to the bedroom, burying her retort in another kiss.

---------------------------------

"We just about had them when Sesshomaru turned up. I'm sorry, Father, but we missed our chance to take the pup."

At the mention of Sesshomaru's name, Rin paused at the door of Karimaru's private audience chamber to listen, her load of blankets for the moment forgotten. The man speaking was a first litter son, one of Karimaru's elite hunter/soldiers. He was still dressed and armed for the hunt and showed signs of having survived a battle.

"No matter," Karimaru replied. "It has been dealt with. Actually, I should congratulate you for flushing Sesshomaru out of hiding. I hadn't realized he was lurking so close by. Perhaps our newlyweds are in better accord than I had thought. I wonder..."

Shock surged through Rin. Her heart thundered in her chest, leaving her head spinning. Married? Sesshomaru-sama? Did ... did that mean the puppy that had come today was his?

"Father?" the younger man prompted after Karimaru's long thoughtful silence.

Karimaru arched his eyebrows and looked at his son. "Very clever, if they're plotting a change of regime. Our Lady's danger may be much closer than she believes."

"What do you think? Do we back him?"

"Sesshomaru? He's scarcely an improvement on his mother."

"He has met the requirements. He has mastered Tenseiga."

"Yes. The girl. But I wonder if his sentiments extend any farther. Then there's that bitch of his. The hime is her mother all over again, much too clever by far. Add to that the Storm Dog wildness and we have a recipe for disaster."

"Inazuma? That flighty little bit of fluff?"

"That flighty bit of fluff currently has the entire household staff under her sway. The tanuki nearly worship her."

Karimaru's son looked stunned and queasy.

"Yes," Karimaru confirmed, "she would dare to arouse the tanuki. Call in the rest of the family. I want a full conference tomorrow about what we should do in the light of this new information. Our Lady truly does not understand what she has set in motion. I just hope we can keep a lid on it."

Rin slumped against the wall outside the chamber, thinking furiously. Odd bits of what she had heard echoed in her head. Requirements? Requirements for what? What did Tenseiga have to do with anything but saving lives? Who was Inazuma? How was it that she had never heard of her? She had been Sesshomaru's near constant companion for almost ten years; how could she know so little about him?

---------------------------------

"Absolutely disgusting."

InuYasha jolted awake from his pleasant post-love doze to find his brother standing in judgement at the foot of the bed.

"Eeeep!" Kagome slid under the comforter until only her eyes were visible.

"You know, if a certain someone could just knock before entering our house, he might find it spares his delicate sensibilities." InuYasha grumbled to his pillow.

"Your woman isn't even in heat." Sesshomaru looked revolted at the mere thought.

"Why are you even here?" InuYasha asked in exasperation. "The last time I talked to you, the other side of the moon was too close for you. I doubt it has anything to do with my love life."

"I need you. Actually, I need Tetsusaiga, but since you're the only one who can use the sword, I have to bring you." Sesshomaru sounded very unhappy about that admission.

"Right. This had better be good, 'cause I'm not going on any bullshit errands for you. And could you at least turn around while we get dressed?"

Sesshomaru turned around with a sardonic excess of patience.

Kagome and InuYasha scrambled for their clothes. Part way through, InuYasha remembered his pants were in the laundry. He went out and picked them up to find they had landed on Noriko's diapers.

"Ew."

"You're the one who dropped them there, smart boy," Kagome said wryly.

"Great. What am I supposed to wear?"

"There's your jeans, or you could borrow a set of my hakama." She turned back to the bedroom to root through some trunks.

"Aren't you ready yet?" Sesshomaru interrupted impatiently.

"No. You still haven't told me what this is all about." InuYasha reminded him.

"I just need you to cut open a barrier."

"Uh-huh. Whose barrier and why?"

"That's none of your concern," Sesshomaru sniffed.

"Oh, no," admonished InuYasha. "You just made it my concern. If you're dragging me in, you're telling me everything."

Sesshomaru stared icily at InuYasha, who just cocked an eyebrow at him. "Your call."

"Karimaru has stolen my son. He has him hidden in the mountains west of here behind a barrier."

"Whoa -- wait -- what son? When did that happen?" Damn, Sesshomaru was sure good at dropping bombshells.

"My mate whelped yesterday."

"And Karimaru managed to get him that fast? What the Hell?"

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried, rejoining them with jeans and hakama in her arms. "If you rescue Sesshomaru's son from Karimaru, then his mother will have to admit you don't intend anything against her! This could fix everything!"

"Unlikely." Sesshomaru remarked. "Mother knows nothing about this pup and I intend to keep it that way."

"But why?" Kagome asked, taken aback.

That was a damned good question, thought InuYasha. Still, there were other concerns, like that promise to rescue Rin if he had a chance.

InuYasha chose the hakama and stepped into them. "I presume Karimaru is still holding Rin," he said as he tied them shut. "Is she in there too?"

"Very likely," Sesshomaru replied.

"That's good enough for me," InuYasha said, collecting Tetsusaiga and slipping it on his waist. "Let's go."

---------------------------------

Sesshomaru and InuYasha wound their way around a snow covered mountain then descended into a secluded valley to alight in a grove of trees in the heart of the valley. InuYasha looked around, but could see no sign of a barrier or construct of any kind.

"Are you sure..."

"Sh!" Sesshomaru made a chopping gesture to cut him off. He sniffed the air carefully, checking all the nuances. InuYasha followed suit. Faint after-scents of the passage of many dogs crossed his nose.

"There weren't so many yesterday," Sesshomaru said very softly. "They may know we're coming."

"Eh, so what? It's just another fight, and you've got Bakusaiga, so we should be good."

"Have you ever been in a dogfight?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Hello! I have been fighting with you for years."

"Those weren't dogfights; that was just you and me, one on one. Dogs fight as a team."

"Yeah? So where did you go wrong? Team fighting isn't exactly your strong point." InuYasha remarked.

"My mother is what went wrong, but never mind that. The Forest Dogs may be only second tier in terms of raw power, but Karimaru has his pack superbly trained. There won't be any room for error. We have to get in and get out before they have a chance to get organized. Do you understand?"

InuYasha swallowed the lump in his throat. Anything that made Sesshomaru this cautious had to be respected.

Sesshomaru drew Bakusaiga, then looked hard at Inuyasha again. "Remember. In and out. Don't stop for anything." He led the way to a glade in the forest and stopped. "The barrier is there," he said, pointing at nothing Inuyasha could see. Inuyasha shrugged and drew Tetsusaiga, and summoned up its boundary cutting capability. He drew in his focus for a moment, nodded to Sesshomaru, then slashed out.

The barrier flared to life, rippled, then ripped away, revealing Karimaru's hidden compound. Sesshomaru darted in through the rip, InuYasha on his heels. They charged the manor house and burst in through the door. Sesshomaru skidded to a halt, took a deep breath and looked down a choice of two halls. InuYasha scarcely stopped in time to avoid a collision, then had to jump again to keep up as Sesshomaru ran off to the right. Several men burst from a room down the hall, shouting with surprise. Three of them transformed to dogs on the spot while the rest scattered, seeking weapons and deploying themselves throughout the house. Sesshomaru charged the dogs and slashed out with Bakusaiga as he went. Two of them dodged the blow, then kicked off the walls of the hall, one to confront Sesshomaru from the side and the other to circle in from behind. InuYasha slashed at the first one as they ran by, while the second took up the chase, baying their location behind them.

They rounded a corner and met a barrage of arrows as more men jumped in from the sides, armed with short swords for close quarters fighting. The men closed in on Sesshomaru, braving Bakusaiga to take turns making in fast darts from several sides in turn, one man trying to distract him while another moved in to take a slash or try to knock him off balance. InuYasha closed ranks with his brother, covering his back while Sesshomaru tried to push an advance down the hall.

"Shit!" InuYasha yelled, whirling around at the sound of footsteps behind him to see five more men closing in swinging weighted ropes. He barely had time to register that before the ropes snaked out to wind around his left forearm and right ankle. He spun Tetsusaiga in a fast circle, cutting the rope that held his arm, only to have his foot pulled out from under him. He landed hard on his back, then another dog vaulted over his fellows to land on top of InuYasha, reaching for his throat. InuYasha slashed out with his claws, leaving bloody gouges in the dog's neck, then Sesshomaru slashed it away with his sword. InuYasha jumped to his feet, pushed Sesshomaru aside and launched a windscar down the passage that cleared the path. Sesshomaru sprinted down the blasted hall, around a corner, then was forced to a halt by another barrier that glowed with a gentle blue light.

"Cut it," he ordered curtly as InuYasha caught up.

InuYasha sliced the barrier away, then both of them jumped into the room beyond.

They were in the women's quarters. Puppies and children ran crying to cower at the back of the room while several women faced them with bows and naginata. Sesshomaru started to run right through them, but InuYasha snatched him back.

"Damn it, Sesshomaru, I am not up for murdering women and children in a nursery!" he snarled.

Sesshomaru yanked himself free of InuYasha's grasp, but did not advance again. "I have come for my son," he told the arrayed women.

"I thought you might." A mature woman with rich brown hair and gentle brown eyes stepped before the armed women to speak with Sesshomaru. The Lady of the Forest Dogs wore a brindled brown fur robe over a rich green brocade kimono with two under-kimono of russet and gold and held a fan in her hand. Despite the gentleness of her manner, there was a firm undercurrent of command. "I never held with the common opinion that you are fully your mother's son. Nevertheless, the pup is much too young to be out in the world. Leave him here for now, until he can at least see and move. I will personally pledge his safety until then."

"No doubt you will," Sesshomaru retorted. "You've been wanting a Sky Dog to foster into your pack for a long time, haven't you, my Lady?"

The Lady's eyes flashed angrily, but her manner remained calm. "I would prefer a more equitable alliance with the Sky Dogs, yes, but I do not use children that way."

"Don't you?" Sesshomaru sneered. "My son would be with his chosen caretakers but for you and your mate."

The Lady's eyes flicked to the side, signaling someone behind Sesshomaru and InuYasha; a net appeared from nowhere to descend over them. Sesshomaru's sword flashed in a rapid arc overhead, cutting the net, then he charged the women, heading straight for the Lady, InuYasha at his heels. The Lady snapped open her fan and jumped to the side, slashing at Sesshomaru with its razor-sharp edge, drawing blood from his arm as he passed. The archers fired as he cleared the women wielding the naginata; arrows bounced off Sesshomaru's armor and InuYasha's sleeves. Sesshomaru paused briefly, looking around the room for any sign of an infant. Meanwhile, InuYasha caught sight of Rin who was held along a wall by one of the women with a hand across her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Here, my Lord," a tanuki called shrilly, drawing Sesshomaru's attention to an alcove in a far corner of the room.

As Sesshomaru turned abruptly and ran to the corner, InuYasha jumped to rescue Rin. Women wielding naginata charged after them. Sesshomaru dispatched his attackers coolly, then resumed his business. InuYasha broke the shafts of his attackers' naginata and grappled with Rin's captor. Sesshomaru turned, holding bundle wrapped in a blanket and flanked by two tanuki.

"Move it, we're clearing out!" Sesshomaru said, blasting a hole in the roof. InuYasha broke Rin free and they ran after the rising Sesshomaru. InuYasha grabbed Rin around the waist and jumped, grasping Sesshomaru's fur as he climbed into the sky. One of the Forest Dog women transformed into a large dog and launched herself after them; she grabbed Rin's leg and ripped her out of InuYasha's arm.

"Rin! I lost her!" InuYasha called as she slipped from his grasp.

"We don't stop," Sesshomaru said grimly.

"Sesshomaru-sama! No! Wait for me!" Rin wailed as she was carried into the forest.

"I'm not leaving her here!" InuYasha yelled back. He dropped free and ran after the dog carrying Rin, following hard on her heels.

Sesshomaru continued to accelerate into the sky with the tanuki and his infant son, soon disappearing from view.

"Jerk!" InuYasha growled under his breath as he continued to follow Rin and the Forest Dog bitch who held her. The bitch ran through the forest, leading him deep into its heart with a winding path that soon had him disoriented. He was thoroughly lost by the time she halted and transformed back into a woman to look at him with bright, confident eyes.

"I have you now," he said. "Let's make this easy. Just let me take Rin. I don't want to hurt you if I don't have to."

She smiled back, completely self-assured, then whistled sharply. Dozens of men and dogs appeared from all directions, on the ground, in the trees, in the air, to surround him, bearing bows, spears and fangs.

"I'm afraid it's we who have you." Karimaru stepped out into the glade, accompanied by three of his sons. As InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga in response, he heard the rustle of feet and the pulling of bows all around him. "Sheathe your sword. You can't take all of us at once and we would prefer to talk."


	47. Chapter 47 Father's Legacy

Chapter 47 - Father's Legacy

"OK, so we'll talk." InuYasha sheathed Tetsusaiga and accompanied Karimaru and his pack back to their compound. Maybe this time, Karimaru would drop the oblique suggestions and choose to speak plainly.

He didn't have a chance to talk to Rin on the way back. Karimaru didn't trust InuYasha far enough to allow him near the girl, so he watched her with worried eyes as she rode on the back of one of the dogs, clearly shattered by Sesshomaru's cold-hearted desertion. That much, at least, he would resolve before he left; Rin was coming home with him, whatever it took.

The Forest Dogs' compound was a seething hive of activity when they returned. Dogs and people rushed about in small groups, carrying bundles and passing messages. The Forest Dogs' Lady was at the center of the commotion, receiving reports and directing activity as a parade of people and dogs swirled around her. InuYasha overheard a snippet as his group walked toward the blasted manor house.

A bitch had just landed and transformed to a young woman to speak to her Lady.

"How many are on site?" the Lady asked.

"Three bitches and ten dogs," the young woman reported.

"Get back to the nursery and tell them it's time to move the pups," the Lady replied. "Take ten more dogs with you when you go and make sure one of them is first litter."

"Yes, Mother." The woman trotted past Karimaru's group, giving InuYasha a growl and a resentful glare as she went by.

"You're ... evacuating?" InuYasha asked. The manor was damaged, but not that badly. It could be repaired handily with this many people around.

"The site has been compromised," Karimaru said grimly. "Of course we're evacuating." He approached his mate and asked her, "Can you break free?"

She looked at InuYasha for a long moment, considering it. "Give me some time to hand over control. I'll be along shortly." She summoned a half-grown child who was running messages and sent him in search of one of her eldest daughters.

Karimaru led InuYasha into the manor and down the hall he had used before. They crossed paths with a group of bitches from the nursery who were carrying the youngest pups in baskets. Several of them started crying when they saw InuYasha and one bold young dog pup snarled and lunged for him as they went by. The pup popped into the shape of an angry little boy who shouted after him, "You hurt my sister! Father, he's a bad dog! Chase him away! Let me down, Ane-ue, let me fight him!"

"Not now, Otouto-chan, we need you to take care of the little ones at our new home," the bitch holding his basket replied.

"But Ane-ue ..."

"No. Mother said."

InuYasha watched them go, his gut churning. "You ... you have a fine son. He'll make a good warrior," he offered.

A flicker of a smile passed over Karimaru's face, then the grim look was back. He conducted InuYasha into a meeting hall; several of the senior members of the pack were already seated on cushions in neat rows the length of the room. InuYasha was given a seat at the foot of the room, then Karimaru settled onto one of a pair of cushions of a raised platform at the head of the room.

"While we wait for the remainder of the pack council, let me make introductions." Karimaru worked his way around the room. As each dog was named, he or she approached InuYasha and sniffed him carefully. Assuming this was normal protocol, InuYasha sniffed back, reading what he could of their personalities and emotions. Most were tense and suspicious, many were hostile or resentful, some were curious. They all maintained a stiff formality of manner that made him very uncomfortable.

Finally, the Lady appeared, accompanied by two bitches and one dog. They each took their turn at introductions and took their places in the council.

"You have said you have no interest in the affairs of the Dog Clans," Karimaru said in opening. "You make that difficult to believe."

"I don't," InuYasha replied, "but I told you I wanted Rin returned. I saw a chance to get her and I took it."

The hard-eyed young bitch from the nursery leaned forward and asked, "How did you find us? How did you get in?" Several members of the clan awaited InuYasha's answer with sharpened interest.

"I didn't find you. Sesshomaru did. He brought me here to cut open the barrier."

Soft mutterings hummed in the background as the young bitch said incredulously, "Cut the barrier? I wasn't aware anything could."

"Tetsusaiga can." InuYasha said shortly.

"It couldn't when the old Lord wielded it." Karimaru said, frowning.

"Yeah, well, I've made a few modifications to it," InuYasha clarified. "I was hunting a real badass youkai a few years back and needed to ramp it up some."

"How much is 'some'?" Karimaru asked.

"Not important if you return Rin," InuYasha countered. "If you hand her over, I won't be back."

"Mmm, that's not how I see it," Karimaru mused.

InuYasha drew his ears back and snapped, "What does it take to convince you lot that..."

Karimaru waved a placating hand. "Oh, I believe that's what you want. I just don't believe Sesshomaru will let you stay out. He and his mate are aiming high and I doubt they'd let someone as useful as you get out of the game."

"What do you know about what they're planning?" InuYasha asked intently.

"That's what I wanted to ask you."

Frustrated and angry, InuYasha stared at Karimaru's bland court face and snarled, "He hasn't told me shit!"

Karimaru quirked an eyebrow and said with resignation, "Ah. To be expected. What has he been doing?"

InuYasha snorted. "Right after you and I had that talk a few months ago, I tracked him down to ask what the Hell was going on and how could I get out of it? He told me to piss off and to, um, 'stay as far away from him in my little human world' as I could. I didn't see him again until he dragged me out of bed today for this expedition. That's as much as I know and you're welcome to it."

Karimaru glanced at the two dogs sitting nearest InuYasha. They sniffed him over, then dropped back down on their cushions with resigned shrugs.

The Lady of the Forest Dogs turned her fan about in her hands for a time, thinking, then sighed. "So, we still have nothing to guide us," she remarked.

"Nothing more than we had before," Karimaru acknowledged, "except, perhaps, a reminder that there is a member of the Sky Dog Clan who is untouched by their Lady."

"Whoa, wait!" InuYasha protested, "I'm not in any clan and I'm not interested in getting tangled up in this."

"And yet, here you are," Karimaru countered.

InuYasha glared at Karimaru, who looked blandly back.

"Enough dancing around!" the Lady said decidedly. "We don't need another incident like today! InuYasha-san does not know what is going on and we are all suffering from it. I'm going to say what I know and let the sticks fall where they may.

"You and your brother interrupted a clan council where we were discussing our options under our oath to the Sky Clan."

Karimaru clarified. "You must understand we swore allegiance to the Sky Clan as a whole, not to any one dog in particular.  I would have preferred to swear to the Great Lord alone, but he insisted on the whole clan. It went well enough while he lived, but when he died ... when he died, Kouri-sama became our mistress. Now it appears that Sesshomaru intends to challenge his mother. Without violating our vow, we can choose who to back."

"The difficulty is that neither one of them pleases us," the older dog to Karimaru's left said bluntly.

"And then there is you," Karimaru said. "You are Kazan-sama's son through and through."

"Oh, great," InuYasha grumbled. "Look, you can just dump any notion you might have of putting me in as Lord. I'm not getting dragged into this."

"You're already in it, like it or not. We didn't drag you into it, Kouri-sama did, just as she dragged Sesshomaru in," Karimaru said.

"You know, I've never even met Sesshomaru's mother," InuYasha remarked. "I don't know anything about her except that she prefers to pretend I don't exist."

"That may have been true at one time, but no longer," Karimaru said gravely. "She is very much locked on you right now and believes you pose a serious threat to her power, and that is something she will not tolerate."

"The Lady Kouri-sama is the beginning and end of all of this," the Lady said softly. "Without Kouri-sama, none of this would have happened. To understand the current situation, you must know about Kouri-sama.

"She came from the Yukiyama sept of the Mountain Dogs Clan."

InuYasha stirred, startled by the mention of Yukiyama.

"Yes," the Lady continued, "Yukiyama is the mountain where Yuki-onna is said to reside. There are curious stories about that sept, stories that say Yuki-onna once took one of their young dogs as a lover and bore him a child. In truth, there is something different about them, and once every two or three generations, they produce a pup of surpassing beauty with a soul of ice. Kouri was one of those pups.

"She hid it well. I first met her when I was only half-grown. My mother had sent me to live with my aunt, who was then the Clan Lady of the Forest Dogs. I was there to learn how to manage a large household. It always helps a poor girl's prospects if she has the skills to build and run a successful household. Still, to Kouri-sama, I was just a child of no consequence, so I saw some of her unguarded moments and learned early what she was.

"She was at the age to be seeking a mate. Her first heat was behind her and she had left her mountain to seek her fortune. It's not so uncommon; the great houses generally host a small cluster of eligible dogs and bitches who are sniffing each other over.

"She can be very charming when it suits her. She entered our house like the rising sun and within a day, every single dog in the house was dancing attendance on her, much to the annoyance of the rest of the young bitches. Shy, demure, unassuming Kouri could not understand what all those dogs found so interesting about her. She protested and waved her fan at them, shooing them toward the other bitches. The more she fluttered and pushed, the closer they stayed to her. The other bitches were seething, but they could not do a thing about it without looking vicious. She kept her eyes down and her fan up so no one could see what she was thinking.

"Then, one day, he came through the door, the dog who was to become your father."

---------------------------------

Kouri-sama, Lady Chieftain of the Sky Dog Clan, sat on her throne and stroked the amulet around her neck. She held it for a time, gazing at the midnight stone set in it. Faint images moved deep within the stone, providing a view into the darkness of the Realm of the Dead, if she chose to pursue it. It was the last gift he had given her, given from the depths of his bitterness before he left.

"Damn you!" she snapped, dropping the amulet and looking away. One would think, after all these years, that she'd be quit of him, but no, the ghosts of his memories continued to haunt her, as fresh as the day they happened.

The day she met him was particularly vivid. She was visiting the Forest Dogs, casing the domain in advance while toying with the young unattached dogs of the manor. Ame-onna, her cousin, had recently arrived, to her great displeasure. Ame-onna wasted no time in cutting her own swath through the young dogs, her unique brand of brash heresy and subversive notions leaving them simultaneously scandalized and fascinated. The cousins spent three days studiously avoiding one another while surreptitiously monitoring the effectiveness of the other's strategy. At the end, Kouri was forced to admit it was a draw.

"_Well, cousin, fancy meeting you here," Ame-onna said on meeting her in the seclusion of a wisteria arbor. "How's the hunting?" Ame-onna was also seeking a mate and was just as ambitious as Kouri._

"_Not bad, if you want a family dog," Kouri sniffed._

"_Everyone knows this is where you go if you want a domestic," Ame-onna remarked. Her vermillion eyes studied Kouri closely, looking for any hint of what she was really doing here. _

_One does not run a campaign in a vacuum, but Kouri was not about to reveal her real motives. She studied her fan and replied, "I'm so new at this. I wanted to see how the dogs here liked me before I tried my luck around the real competition."_

_Ame-onna quirked a disbelieving eye at her. "Eh, from the looks of things here, that isn't going to be a problem. You have that act down to a 'T'". _

"_I can't imagine what you're talking about."_

_Ame-onna snorted softly. After another piercing glance at Kouri, she gave up and changed the subject. "Where do you think you'll go next?"_

"_I haven't decided." She had, but had no intention of letting cousin dearest know about it. Ame-onna knew far too much already. "You?"_

"_I think I'll head north, check out the Sea Dogs, or maybe the Storm Dogs."_

"_Those barbarians!" Kouri exclaimed. "I've heard they're half wolf!"_

"_An exaggeration," Ame-Onna replied. "I'll take a rough-cut jewel that just needs a little polishing over one of those inbred imbeciles from the Cloud Dogs."_

_Kouri hid behind her fan and said playfully, "You're looking at it all wrong. An imbecile with all of those resources is a free meal to whatever you want to do, and you'd be doing their clan such a service by freshening up their bloodlines."_

_Ame-onna snorted. "Nice try. No, I want a mate I can respect at my back. Backing I can trust is worth all the wealth of the Cloud Dogs and more."_

"_And you're going to trust a barbarian," Kouri said ironically._

"_Of course." Ame-onna looked at her blandly. Kouri considered it. Ame-onna was undoubtedly lying; her assertion was as outrageous as Kouri's take on the Cloud Dogs. Still, Ame-onna was not one to let convention constrain her; she just might do it._

_They exchanged sweet, phony smiles and strolled out of the arbor and toward the manor, each trying to unravel the other's deceits. As they approached the porch, the manor door opened and the Lord came through accompanied by a young warrior Kouri had never seen before. The very air about him smoldered with barely contained power and passion._

_The two bitches pulled up short and watched him go by._

"_Oh, my. You __have__ been holding out on me," Ame-onna said appreciatively. "__Who__ is __that__?"_

"_No idea," Kouri said, equally interested. "He must have just arrived." She reached out to touch his gyre. The depth and intensity of his youki was extraordinary._

_Light as it was, he felt the touch and turned to look; earnest golden eyes met hers. Caught, she looked at him wide-eyed for a moment, then looked away, flustered and blushing._

"_Oh, no, you don't," Ame-onna hissed. "I saw him first."_

"_Hardly," Kouri replied. "Look around. Every single bitchling with a whiff of guts in her is here." It was true; all the unattached females were here, in the garden, on the porch, peering through the windows._

"_Hmph. Well, we can hardly let someone of that quality get lost to one of these prissy inconsequentials, now can we?"_

_Absolutely not. That went without saying._

---------------------------------

The Lady of the Forest Dogs sighed and shook her head.

"I got to watch the bitch-fight that followed. That's when I learned just how vicious an aggressive bitch can be. Nothing ever happened where anyone could see it, but any bitch who caught his eye, even for a 'Good morning', soon kept her distance or vanished while Ame-onna and Kouri fought for him.

"It was unfortunate. I think Kazan-sama would have been happier with a bitch who was not bent on world conquest. Both Ame-onna and Kouri-sama kept to their personas, Ame-onna as the high-spirited rebel and Kouri-sama as the demure, unassuming lady with hidden depths. He chose Kouri-sama and Ame-onna went north to take the Lord of the Storm Dogs and raise that clan to unimagined heights. Inazuma-hime, Sesshomaru's mate, is her daughter and she is shaping up to be every bit as canny and nervy as her mother.

"Kouri-sama and Kazan-sama made it through the whelping and training of their first litter. That's usually the most difficult time for a dog pack. It was a large litter, two daughters and four sons. The pack your father built became legendary, and Kouri started building her empire. She was eager, even greedy, and pushed until other packs grew threatened by her ambitions."

"Wait a minute, I never heard about any other children," InuYasha cried. "Sesshomaru has never once mentioned having any siblings except me."

"No, he wouldn't," The Lady replied. "He never met them either. Kouri-sama was carrying her second litter when a bitch of the Cloud Dogs called a challenge and took the fight to her court. Kouri-sama thought she could take her easily and accepted the challenge herself when she should have chosen a champion. The Cloud Dog bitch had more fight in her than Kouri-sama reckoned on and Kouri-sama was clumsy with her pregnancy. She won the fight, but was injured badly enough to lose the litter. Kazan-sama mistrusted her judgement after that and required her to stay home to administer their holdings. She was still intensely ambitious and kept the Lord and the pack out on campaign, bringing home one conquest after another, but it was never enough. Then it all fell apart; Kouri-sama overreached and the pack was killed. Only Kazan-sama survived. All through the time she was home alone, she kept a closely held secret - one pup of the second litter had survived."

---------------------------------

Sesshomaru came to earth on a ledge high above a roaring river. There was a cleft in the cliff face of the ledge that opened to a cave. The rocks that guarded the entrance deflected the icy wind that swirled at these heights, making the cave feel almost warm in comparison. Within the cave there was a basket of supplies for the young pup; Sesshomaru caught the scent of a bitch occupying the cave farther in.

"Please, Sesshomaru-sama, give us the pup," the older of the two tanuki women accompanying him said urgently.

Sesshomaru glared at them and kept his son close in his arms. "I would know how my son is to be kept first."

"Inazuma-hime has prepared everything. Her own sister will serve to raise the pup. It is too soon for Sesshomaru-sama to begin. Please, Sesshomaru-sama, a dog must not handle a pup this young."

Sesshomaru's glare grew even more icy. " This Sesshomaru will not leave until he is pleased with the time he is to join in this pup's raising."

A lean, hard bitch with unyielding eyes strode out to confront him. "That's for us to decide. Dogs don't belong near newborn pups."

"So I keep hearing. No one ever explains why. Today, this Sesshomaru will learn this secret." Sesshomaru withdrew a few paces, then unwrapped his son to truly see him for the first time. He was shocked down to his very core. The pup was small and utterly helpless, his eyes closed tight and his body only strong enough to quest about blindly, searching for warmth and sustenance. Even InuYasha's hopeless little mortals were stronger than this.

The pup started crying thinly as the cold air penetrated his short coat of downy fur. Growling with impatience at the foolishness of dogs in general and Sesshomaru in particular, the Storm Dog bitch snatched the pup up and held him close to her.

"Now do you understand? It takes a great deal of time before a pup can leave the den and meet its father."

Sesshomaru continued to glare at the bitch, not the least bit satisfied. "So. It takes time. Just you be damned sure it does not take too much time." He strode out of the cave in an icy rage, remembering the one pup whose mother did take too long.

"_When is it enough, Kouri?" It was a man's voice, deep and resonant and, right now, thick with the bitterness of despair. "How much do we have to lose before you say 'enough'?"_

"_What do you mean?" That was Mother, her voice sharp and brittle._

"_They're __dead__, Kouri, every last one of them. KazeInu dead, Hoshimaru dead, __all__ of them, and for what? We had all we needed a century ago, and still you wanted more. We had more than anyone could hope to want twenty years ago, and still you wanted more. Last night, we lost the most precious things we ever had, all our children, just so you could have one more bauble. What does it take to satisfy you?"_

_Sesshomaru drew back from the door to his mother's suite. He wasn't supposed to be here, but he had heard Father was in the palace and he was desperate to meet him and his far-famed pack. Mother had said over and over that it wasn't time yet. He could not understand why._

"_But what went wrong? It was supposed to be lightly guarded."_

"_It wasn't guarded at all. Did it never occur to you that the reason it wasn't guarded was that it didn't __need__ to be guarded? It is more than capable of defending itself."_

"_Well. A definite miscalculation." Mother still sounded like she was knocked off balance._

"_A miscalculation?!" The man sounded incredulous. "Is that all you have to say?!"_

"_What do you want?" she snapped, peevish and defensive. "We both know these things are risky. You can't expect to win every time."_

"_Kouri! We just lost __all__ our children! Doesn't that mean __anything__ to you?"_

_Father... Father doesn't know anything about me, Sesshomaru thought. The realization rocked him to his core. Why doesn't Father know?_

"_You never really saw them as yours after I took over their training, did you?" Father asked after a long silence. "All of a sudden, they were just a pack, just a tool."_

"_That's not how it is," Mother protested._

"_Isn't it?"_

_Another long silence._

"_So. You've heard the news. And since you don't seem to need me, I'll take my leave."_

_The door slid open and Sesshomaru found himself facing a big powerful man with a commanding presence dressed in battered armor. The man pulled up short, astonishment replacing the grief in his golden eyes._

"_So. You kept one for yourself, eh, Kouri? He looks just like you."_

_Mother recovered quickly. "Come here and greet your father properly, Sesshomaru."_

"_Honored Father," Sesshomaru said, prostrating himself before his father._

"_Sesshomaru," Father repeated. "Interesting choice of name."_

_Sesshomaru chanced a look up. His father was studying him closely, a whole new dimension of hurt in his eyes. Father looked back at Mother and said, "I'm taking him with me." His tone left no room for argument. Sesshomaru glanced quickly at Mother. Her mouth was tight, the way it got when she was angry, but she acquiesced without a word._

_Neither Father nor the trip were anything like Sesshomaru had imagined. Father wore his great stature lightly; he tolerated liberties Sesshomaru never would have allowed, spoke with minor youkai as equals and listened carefully to all their petty complaints and petitions. He had the strangest friends, taking his counsel from fleas and trees as much as from the other dog lords. But it was perhaps the sentimentality that startled him the most. Father felt things deeply and his emotions drove many of his decisions. Sesshomaru found it hard to believe that this genial youkai lord was the fearsome pack leader he had heard so much about. When he pressed Father for details about the stories, Father would reply, "That was scarcely my finest moment." or "My temper got the better of me that time. We were lucky to get out alive."_

_It was very frustrating. Sesshomaru had waited all his life for a chance to run with Father and the pack, to conquer powerful foes and claim magnificent prizes. Instead, he was stuck on a boring tour of the realm as Father visited all their subject clans and judged their disputes. He grew more and more restive, waiting for something, __any__thing to happen. He remembered well the day he finally cracked._

_He was sitting beside Father who was mediating a dispute between an badger and a fox. Between the stubbornness of the badger and the slipperiness of the fox, the negotiations were taking interminable hours, during which time Sesshomaru was supposed to sit quietly and observe. The stupidity of the whole scene finally exhausted his patience, and he raked his claws across the table, shredding both disputants is a spray of blood._

_Father erupted, and Sesshomaru founding himself facing his father's volcanic temper at very close range. Seizing Sesshomaru be the scruff of his neck, he required him to abase himself before the families of the badger and the fox to apologize and pay restitution, then he dragged him back to the palace in disgrace. The ensuing fight between his parents was titanic._

_Mother visited him in his chamber afterwards, her mouth held in a tight thin line as she told him, "Congratulations, Sesshomaru, I haven't seen your father that angry since my sister betrayed us. He tells me your behavior was absolutely reprehensible and he holds me responsible for your upbringing."_

_Sesshomaru's back hair raised and he snapped back, "I have better things to do than listen to the squabbling of a badger and a fox."_

"_Don't we all," Mother growled. "My Lord, however, thinks this is the essence of ruling a realm. He just told me he is removing you from the line of succession. I suggest you consider how you might persuade him otherwise."_

---------------------------------

"What the Hell?" InuYasha exclaimed. "I always thought Sesshomaru had grown up with my old man around."

"No, Kazan-sama found out about Sesshomaru shortly after the pack died. He was a great surprise to the Lord, and when he took him out of the palace to get acquainted, he did not like what he saw. A rift soon developed between Kazan-sama and Kouri-sama. Sesshomaru had been Kouri-sama's pet project, and she was furious that the Lord found him wanting. Kazan-sama tried to teach Sesshomaru compassion and restraint, but he failed."

---------------------------------

Kouri turned the jewel over again, glancing once more at the shifting images lost in its midnight depths. If only he hadn't been so ... noble. She never imagined that someone with so much power would hesitate to use it. He ran everything he did through a rigorous code of honor, a code that got in the way of so much she hoped to do. It was frustrating, trying to work around him and his notions. Training Sesshomaru had been the one thing she had gotten to do her way, and then he had to spoil it.

When Kazan got angry, things happened; Kouri remembered that very well. Sesshomaru became a project, much to his chagrin. His father ran him through test after test after test, pushing him into situations and watching how he handled himself. Every time Sesshomaru completed one of these exercises, his father interviewed him thoroughly about his decisions and asked pointed questions about issues that Sesshomaru found entirely unimportant, then stalked off grimly to concoct the next exercise. As the lessons dragged on without any sign of an end, Sesshomaru grew angry himself and lashed out in icy fury at the obstacles put before him. Kazan finally called a halt when Sesshomaru demolished a monastery with ruthless efficiency when the rogue youkai he was hunting took refuge in its temple. Kazan arrived when the deed was done and Sesshomaru was cleaning monks' entrails and youkai's blood from his claws.

Kouri remembered the conversation with her mate afterward.

"_Your whelp does you proud," he said grimly as he stood at a window, looking out to the mountains beyond. It sounded like a curse._

"_What are you hoping to find?" she demanded, nettled by his displeasure. _

"_I'm hoping to find even a hint of mercy," he replied. "He sees no intrinsic value in anything that has no use to him. As it stands, that whelp is utterly unfit to rule, and he's all we have left."_

"_Aren't you judging him too harshly?" she asked pointedly. As far as she was concerned, Sesshomaru showing decisive efficiency. Really, this notion of restraint was going much too far._

"_Am I?" he snapped. "Tell that to the monastery he just slaughtered."_

"_Ah. And what importance did they have?" They were mortals; they were due to die soon enough anyway. What difference did it make?_

_He looked at her for a long moment, as if seeing her for the first time. "If you look at it that way, then let me ask you this - where's the honor in destroying something of no importance? Is such a deed momentous? Meaningful? It's not; it's just petty and pointless."_

---------------------------------

Sesshomaru looked back into the cave. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear Inazuma's sister and the tanuki deftly handling his son. Icy waves of disapproval rolled out of the back of the cave as the women waited for him to get the hint and clear out. He remained stubbornly fixed to the entrance of the cave; he would wait until they told him what he wanted to know.

Bitches: he had had his fill of bitches. They absolutely dictated the fate of a pup, how it was raised, when it entered the pack. The dogs could do nothing until the bitches granted them access.

"_Why, Mother?" Sesshomaru confronted his mother after he and Father had returned from one of their disastrous trips. The longer he thought about it, the less sense his mother's actions made._

"_Why what, my son?"_

"_Why didn't Father know about me? When was I really going to join the pack?" It was going to be never, wasn't it?_

_Mother sighed. "I lost the rest of your litter to a miscarriage and wasn't sure you would live, so I didn't say anything."_

_Maybe that made sense at first, but he had grown strong. "And after? When you knew I was strong?" She had trained him herself, and trained him hard. When she was done, he knew all about fighting with weapons and magic, but he now knew she had left out learning to live as a Dog. _

"_I don't know. It just got more and more awkward to mention as time went on."_

Did it? You never found anything else awkward to mention. What were you really doing?

---------------------------------

"It sure doesn't show that anyone tried to teach Sesshomaru compassion," InuYasha remarked. "He still thinks people are just annoying bugs buzzing in his face, especially me."

"He had his reasons for finding you provoking," Karimaru replied. "Kazan-sama visited us soon after he gave up on Sesshomaru's lessons. He and Kouri-sama had fought again. The Lord was heartsick about what had become of his last son, but still, he felt he could not allow him to take a position of authority in the clan. He said Kouri-sama talked about starting over, raising another litter that would become the base of the clan. Sesshomaru must have overheard that and since he did not care to remain nearby while his parents raised a third litter to supplant him, he left to wander the countryside in exile. Kazan-sama, however, said he told Kouri-sama he'd go to Hell before he gave her another litter to destroy. He went out in pursuit of his last son and instead found his heart's desire."

"You mean...?"

"Yes," the Forest Dog's Lady, replied. "That's when he met your mother."

----------------------------------------------

"Ah, you weren't so noble yourself in the end, were you?" Kouri said to the jewel. "What ever happened to a mate's fidelity? I'm not the only one to blame."

"_You didn't want me."_

_Kazan searched for Sesshomaru continually, but his visits to the palace became more and more infrequent, and finally ceased altogether. Kouri's older sister brought her the rumor that Kazan was keeping company with a young mortal woman. He still toured the realm as before, judging disputes and defending borders, and Kouri tracked him down at Karimaru's public court to inquire about the rumors._

"_I didn't want you?" she retorted, "What foolishness is that? I was always pleased to see you come home."_

"_You were always pleased to see what I brought you, but once you had it, you couldn't wait to get me and the pack out of the palace and off on our next assignment. They used to ask me about it, you know. 'How is it that the vassals treat us better than Mother?' You wanted what we could do, but you didn't want us; that came in as loud and clear as a temple bell."_

"_Your little human isn't any better," Kouri snapped in exasperation. "She wants your power even more than I do."_

"_And yet, she has never asked me for anything. Not once. She has no idea what I can do. She is pleased when I come, sad to see me go, she sets time aside from her duties to teach me the playing of a flute or to watch fireflies for an evening."_

"_Flute? Fireflies?" Kouri snapped. "What foolishness is this? How could that possibly interest a warrior?"_

"_It interests __me__, not that you ever cared to ask."_

"_Does it?" she asked ironically. "Or is it just the novelty of that fresh young thing fawning over you that interests you? I never thought you'd stoop to sullying yourself with a mortal, but at least it won't last long. She'll be old and ugly in a handful of years, then you'll come back to your senses." _

She really thought that's how it would turn out. He'd play for a few years with his little human pet, then get bored when she aged and come home, but that wasn't what happened.

----------------------------------

Sesshomaru wondered about Inazuma and what she was really doing. He didn't like having to second-guess her every plan. If he sat here long enough, someone would have to summon her to deal with him. Then he could require her to keep him in the loop. He wasn't going to be cut out, not like what Mother did to Father.

Father ... what an array of conflicting emotions he aroused. Sesshomaru had scarcely had a chance to know the old Dog, but the memories left an impact.

_Sesshomaru had been bemused, chagrined and secretly pleased that Father had left Mother behind to seek him out. Still, their first meeting had hardly been auspicious._

_Some damned fool of a swollen-headed youkai had found Sesshomaru wandering alone and had decided that, as a lone dog, he was easy pickings. One slash of his venom-laden claws had corrected that misconception; only tatters of hide and blood soaked earth were left when he was done._

_Father dropped out of the sky unannounced and stood silently looking over the carnage. _

_Sesshomaru was in no mood for another lecture, so he lashed out first. "So, I've done it again, slaughtered yet another useless youkai and shamed the family. Do you hate me? Do you wish I'd never been born? Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"_

_Father looked at him with great sadness and said mildly, "Defending yourself is not a crime. And no, I don't hate you. I hate what was done to you, and that is very different."_

"_Is it really? I'm not sure I see the difference."_

"_I do," Father said gravely, "And that's what matters. You've been damaged, and I'm seeking a way to undo the damage."_

"_Why? You cut me out of my place in the clan. That sounds final to me. So excuse me if I don't care to waste any more time on this pointless conversation." He turned to leave._

"_Sesshomaru!" Sesshomaru glanced back. "Just remember, you are my son, and I have not given up on you."_

_Sesshomaru turned and stalked away._

Father truly had not given up on him, but sometimes it was hard to tell. A few months after that encounter, Sesshomaru heard about the mortal.

_He really had not thought one way or another about mortals until Father took up with one. They were there, a part of the landscape, but now the merest scent of one filled him with loathing. Father had completely disgraced the family, humiliated his mother, so how could he possibly dare to judge Sesshomaru's conduct? After a blistering fight with Father over how a dai-youkai should behave and where he should place his priorities, Sesshomaru returned to his mother's palace to support her._

_A couple more years passed, then Father suddenly appeared at the palace bearing gifts for each of them. Mother expected he was seeking her pardon; she could not have been more wrong. _

_He gave her an extraordinary jewel, a necklace with a stone that reached into the Realm of the Dead._

"_Perhaps, some day, if your heart ever melts, you might wish to see your children and apologize for what you did to them. When that day comes, look deep into the jewel. You will find them waiting."_

_To Sesshomaru, he gave a sword. "I cannot teach you compassion. You will have to work your way to it by your own path. To aid you, I had this sword forged from my fang by the great smith Toto-sai. Its name is Tenseiga and its virtue is to restore the lives of the dying. For the truly merciful, it can raise one hundred lives with one swing. Master this sword and you will regain your inheritance."_

"_You're__ wearing a new sword," Mother observed. _

"_Ah, this. This is Tetsusaiga. It can slay one hundred youkai with one swing, but its purpose is elsewhere." He bowed slightly and turned to leave._

"_Where would that be?" Mother asked pointedly._

_He stopped, but did not turn around. "Just exactly where you think it is. One hundred youkai, Kouri. Think carefully before you send a pack after me or her."_

--------------------------------

"Wait! You mean that ...?" InuYasha cried.

"Yes, Tetsusaiga was forged with Kouri-sama specifically in mind. Kazan-sama knew Kouri-sama was not going to take that humiliation sitting down if she had a choice." Karimaru replied.

"I don't get it. It sounds like he went out of his way to piss her off."

"She was sufficiently annoyed already. What he was doing was ensuring that we vassals heard everything he had to say. Kouri-sama couldn't send us after him by pretending she didn't know about Tetsusaiga. He also ensured that we all knew what Sesshomaru had to do before he could legitimately take control of the clan."

"What about the jewel he gave her? Why did you need to know about that?"

Karimaru sighed and looked away. "We Dogs cherish our children, or, most of us do. He let us know she was not like that, that she would use and destroy our children if we did not take care. It put limits on what she could persuade us to do."

"And Sesshomaru?"

"I don't know what his thoughts were. He left the palace to wander alone soon afterward. We believed he was starting his quest to master his sword. From what I have heard since, that was not the case."

"Damned straight," InuYasha growled. "He wanted to force his way to power by using Tetsusaiga."

_--------------------------------_

_Raising the dead - what an unspeakable waste of time. Father was very wrong indeed if he thought he, Sesshomaru, was going to invest his time saving the dead and dying. It took a warrior to hold and defend a realm, not a healer. The weak just got in the way._

_Perhaps he would do both himself and Mother a favor and steal Tetsusaiga. With that sword, they could rule the youkai world. Once he had it, it wouldn't much matter what Father thought._

_Sesshomaru followed his father's trail to the remote valley where he kept a manor in the human world. Watching a lovely human woman greet his father with a kiss was like getting a knife stabbed into his belly. Watching her put an eager, laughing child into his arms and seeing Father swing him up then swoop him down into a close hug twisted that knife, balling his guts in churning, burning wad that overwhelmed even his icy control._

Even now, it was difficult to move past the jealousy he felt when he saw InuYasha, to see that what Father had loved so much was just the fact he had access to this child. He understood it now, as he compared InuYasha's human family to his own. Mother had so much to answer for.

---------------------------------

InuYasha described Sesshomaru's obsession with Tetsusaiga to Karimaru's pack, then said, "When Bakusaiga appeared, he lost interest in Tetsusaiga. It was a lot easier to get along with him after that; well, most of the time anyway. Ever since his mother started stirring things up, though, he's been pretty much a shithead. You think he's preparing for a challenge; maybe you're right, but he's been working real hard at keeping me out of it. I'm OK with that."

Karimaru shook his head. "I don't think you can afford to be completely out of it. You need to know what's going on here; otherwise when Kouri-sama decides to move, you will have no time to prepare."

"What difference will that make?"

"A great deal. You hold Tetsusaiga, and it's a mighty weapon, but you will still need a strong pack to guard your back. You've been in one dog fight now, one where you caught us unprepared. Do you think you will do better if we strike you unawares?"

"I'm not easy to kill," InuYasha said shortly.

"I didn't say you were. But you are not the only person at risk. You must train your children well and watch Kouri-sama. We can help."

InuYasha frowned. "You'd sell her out? Why should I trust you?"

"I told you before, the oath is to the Sky Dog Clan. We can choose to back the Clan member that we feel will best serve the Clan's interests."

"And you really think that's me?" InuYasha asked skeptically.

"Right now, I'm just keeping our options open," Karimaru replied. "You would be wise to do the same thing."

So, you aren't going to back me, but you aren't going to let me go. "I'm not sure I like that arrangement. I'm not all that convinced you'll help me in a pinch, if it inconveniences your interests."

"Fair enough." Karimaru looked at his council and asked, "Should we give him a hostage to demonstrate our good will?"

"I don't want a hostage!" InuYasha yelped. Damn, that hole Karimaru was digging for him kept getting deeper and deeper. "Why don't you just give me Rin and we'll quit while we're ahead?"

Glances passed around the room as the members of the council looked to one another. They wanted to talk, but were reluctant discuss these matters before an outsider. Karimaru saw the restiveness of his relatives and said, "Please excuse us for a time. We must discuss our options frankly. Let me take you to the garden, where you may await our decision."

Karimaru escorted InuYasha to an enclosed garden in the heart of the compound and promised he would hear their decision soon. InuYasha sat on a stone watching the water flow from a small spring into a pool and pondering all that he had learned. It was the first time he had ever heard so much about his family. He had always thought that Sesshomaru had known Father well and had always envied him his time with Father. He was shocked to discover that Sesshomaru had been as deprived as he was. Even so, Sesshomaru always spoke of Father with profound respect. It didn't sound like they had been that way when his old man was alive. Maybe he'd ask what happened.

The shadows were growing long in the garden when Karimaru returned and asked him to rejoin them in the council room. When he arrived, he found Rin and a half-grown girl sitting at the head of the council just in front of Karimaru and his mate.

"We have come to our decision. Rin is no longer useful to us, so we will release her to you. We also want you to accept our daughter, Koukori, as your hostage. She is old enough to safely leave the nursery, but not old enough to be a threat to you. I would like her to learn more of human ways and your household will be a good place for her to begin her studies."

"What is Kouri going to do when she finds out I'm fostering one of your children?" InuYasha asked. "She's sure to notice."

The girl suddenly transformed into a gangly brown puppy, all long legs, and oversized paws. Her mother came forward and placed a collar around her neck that masked or suppressed her youki, making it undetectable.

"You just got a puppy. She will seem like any other village dog."

"I'm going to show up back home with Rin and a puppy and no one is going to find that, er, unusual?"

"Koukori will arrive a few days from now, apparently a stray. You just need to know she's coming."

Whether he liked it or not, InuYasha realized Karimaru had neatly herded him exactly where he wanted him and there wasn't much he was going to be able to do about it. He hoped the Forest Dogs could be trusted.

A couple of hours later, one of Karimaru's first litter sons dropped back to earth on a hill overlooking Kaede's village with InuYasha and Rin on his back. He transformed back to a human shape after they had dismounted to chat for a moment before he left.

"There's one thing I don't get," InuYasha said, hoping there was an answer. "I just heard how my old man abandoned his mate to live with my mother, and still, everyone talks like he was the finest Dog who ever lived."

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Karimaru's son replied. "Did you never hear the tale of how your father died?"

"I was just a baby when it happened. Mother didn't know anything. I only found out a few years ago that he was mortally wounded by Ryuukossei in their battle."

"After Kazan-sama left, all of the scum came out of the woodwork, looking to overthrow Kouri-sama and take her treasures. That jewel you heard about is not the only thing she keeps by any means. Her collection holds many of the rarest and most powerful magical artifacts known. We, annihilated most of the opportunists, but we did not have the strength to take on Ryuukossei."

--------------------------

Kouri could still feel the searing blasts of youki-fire exploding in the air and the mountain rumbling beneath her as it had on that day Ryuukossei had come for her nephew's family. A few days earlier, they had arrived at the palace pleading for sanctuary, saying they had somehow offended the great demon-dragon.

_She and Sesshomaru broke off their private conference at the first blast to investigate the disturbance. Another blast exploded overhead as Karimaru and his lieutenants rounded the corner into the hallway where she and Sesshomaru stood to report._

"_Lady, we have trouble. Ryuukossei is here for your nephew's family, and he has already demolished the barriers. The east wing is on fire and the roof of the servants' quarters has collapsed."_

"_Where is your pack?" she asked._

"_The on-duty guard is already engaged, the rest of them are arming."_

"_Get them out there. I'll be along shortly."_

"_Mother?" Sesshomaru asked._

"_Come with me."_

_Acrid smoke drifted in tendrils from the east wing of the palace as they strode the hallways toward the vaults which held the pack's treasures. Kouri stopped a senior tanuki to order him to tell the staff to clear out the palace. The tanuki scurried off and she continued deeper into the palace, sidestepping around scurrying servants and directing her retainers as she went._

_She was nearly at the vault when her nephew's mate caught up with her and prostrated herself, sobbing in hysterics. "Kouri-sama, I swear, we hid our trail! We did __not__ lead him here! Please, believe me..."_

_Really, where did that pup find such a hopeless little excuse of a bitch? She had absolutely no spine whatsoever. "He didn't need to follow your trail," Kouri said drily. "You had nowhere else you could go. In any case, I'm reasonably sure he doesn't give a damn about you and your litter. You're just his excuse for a challenge; he's really after my treasures. Now, go save your litter and leave the fighting to the big dogs."_

"_But..."_

"_Go!" The girl flinched and fled._

_Kouri entered the vault and selected two of the more potent artifacts, a jeweled necklace and a spear. She donned the jewel, then, handing the spear to Sesshomaru and sealing the vault, she said, "Shall we go have a look?" _

_They never even made it to the main gate. They were trotting down the empty halls when the roof suddenly caved in before them; a segment of a dragon's huge torso filled the space, then lifted away. They jumped out through the gaping hole to stand on the roof and look at the immense body of a mountain dragon as it reared up to snap at Karimaru's pack. _

_Karimaru and his pack were flying a harassment pattern around Ryuukossei's head, but even their best shots were ricocheting away. The dragon surged and slewed sinuously after them, snapping and belching fire as they swarmed around his head like angry wasps. _

_Kouri and Sesshomaru watched the action for a few moments, noting the unusual configuration of his head. He had a normal dragon's face, but embedded in his forehead was another face like a mask that seemed to be the center of his awareness. Kouri said, "Interesting. It looks like the mask should be our target. Failing that, let's try for his eyes. There are very few venomous dogs, and I doubt he knows about that possibility. I'll try to keep him busy. You get behind him and use either the spear or your claws to at least blind him. Then we'll see what we can do."_

_Kouri summoned the power of her jewel, then leapt into the air as she fired a blast that merely rocked the beast back, but did not penetrate his armored hide._

_Ryuukossei tracked her across the sky, his eyes alight with malice. "Ahh, there you are, little bitch. So you thought to use the Jewel of Burning Water on me, did you? How amusing." The big dragon youkai coiled then surged directly at her, spouting a helix of flames. Sesshomaru took to the air when Ryuukossei could no longer see him._

_Kouri only barely escaped the searing heat of the helix. She could smell her singed fur and feel the flames lick at her feet and tail as she dodged away from the sinuous youki-fire tendrils. _

_Karimaru's pack swept by, firing a barrage of bolts at Ryuukossei's head, then splitting up as he belched another fiery tornado after them. Sesshomaru appeared from behind the dragon's back, arching low, then driving toward the mask, the blade of his spear glowing. He struck at the mask, the spear point flared blindingly, but the blow skipped off leaving no damage. Ryuukossei roared and sent a blast after Sesshomaru as he circled away._

_Kouri climbed steeply, seeking the center of his youkai vortex, then rocked back, appalled at the size of it. There was no way she could beat this back, no matter which of her magical artifacts she used. Sesshomaru dodged to the side as Ryuukossei snapped at him, then spun to drive the spear into his eye. The spear penetrated the eye, then exploded. Sesshomaru tumbled backwards, shaken by the blast. Ryuukossei arched back in pain, roaring, then hissed viciously, and struck at the dazed Sesshomaru, snatching him out of the sky and hurling him against a cliff. Shattered rock flew everywhere, then the cliff was engulfed in Ryuukossei's flames._

_Kouri could no longer see Sesshomaru through the wall of fire. "No," she gasped, rocked to the core. "__No!__" she cried, no longer caring that she could not defeat this beast. "__**Nooo!**__" she roared, pulling up every bit of power she possessed and channelling it through her jewel to strike down the dragon's gullet as he turned away from the cliff and closed on her for the final blow. All that was left was to die honorably, fighting to the end._

_The flames washed over her, countered by the burning water from the jewel. Fangs encircled her, gaping wide then snapping down. She braced for the blow, prepared to blow her youki vortex to the gates of Hell in a final suicide bid to destroy the monster, when the fangs suddenly shot back away from her. Kouri rolled to the side, driven more by instinct than intent, and dove away as an immense furry white form surged by with Ryuukossei's throat in its jaws._

"_Kazan!" she cried, recognizing her mate and jumping to his assistance._

"_Get out of the way," he growled, biting and snarling at the dragon's face. "Get Sesshomaru and clear out."_

"_You can't take him!" Kouri cried after him. "He's too big! Let me use the jewel to bleed his strength!" She shot a blast past him that exploded against Ryuukossei's hide just inches from Kazan's nose. _

"_Let me worry about that!" Kazan shouted. "You just make sure Sesshomaru and the household are well away." Kazan returned to the fight, opening wide the gyre of his power and letting the vortex build in depth and speed._

_She hesitated, reluctant to leave him like this._

"_Kouri!" he snapped, nipping at her heels to get her moving, then rolling away as Ryuukossei's head shot between them. Kouri bolted to the cliff face where Sesshomaru lay crumpled, grabbed his kimono back and fled up a canyon to catch up with Karimaru's pack. _

_Sesshomaru roused as she carried him to safety._

"_Mother, I am __not__ a puppy," he snapped, shaking himself free of her grip. He tried to evade her, but she grabbed him again and dragged him with her to meet Karimaru._

"_Lady?" Karimaru asked._

"_He says to evacuate," she gasped. Karimaru clapped his hands sharply, then directed his lieutenants quickly to their assignments. Kouri and Sesshomaru returned to the mouth of the canyon to see what could be done in the fight._

_The mountainside shook as Kazan and Ryuukossei crashed into it in their struggle. Rocks tumbled past and dust billowed around them. _

"_Lady, it's time to go," Karimaru said firmly as the mountainside shook again._

"_Not a chance," she replied. "You lead the household to safety, if you wish."_

_Karimaru and the last of the guard remained as a rear guard in case Kazan failed to defeat the dragon. Together, they flew clear of the mountain and watched the battle at a distance. Kazan and Ryuukossei were so closely intertwined and tumbling so rapidly that no one could venture to assist the Dog Lord. They writhed and grappled furiously, clearing the mountainsides of trees and causing landslides as they sought to score a vital blow. Ryuukossei broke free then doubled back to grab Kazan by the scruff of the neck and fling him against the palace, flattening most of what had survived the fire. Kazan rolled back to his feet as Ryuukossei struck again and, flickering briefly to human form, drew the sword at his waist and released its power in a wide slicing swing. "Wind scar!"_

_The force of the wind tumbled Ryuukossei directly at where Kouri and the remainder of her household floated watching._

"_Scatter!" Karimaru yelped, pushing everyone roughly in all directions as the remainder of the wind scar blasted past them. Kouri flowed to the side, then circled beneath the dragon, intent on taking an opportunity to shoot a blast at his exposed belly with her jewel while he was still separated from Kazan. Ryuukossei writhed when the energy of the burning water struck him, his tail flipping up to swat her out of the sky. She crashed hard against a cliff and lay still, knocked breathless by the force. Ryuukossei turned a baleful eye upon her and belched youki-fire at her as she gathered her scattered wits._

_Kazan roared in fury and released the full force of his gyre; lightning bolts of youki shot across his vortex as it gathered momentum, becoming a blinding maelstrom of raw power. His body grew with each heart's pulse until he was nearly as tall as the cliffs. He abandoned the sword and leapt on Ryuukossei bodily, pinning the dragon against the cliff and and spearing hard into his chest with his hand, impaling him through the heart with one of his claws, which remained behind when he snapped back his arm._

"_Close, Dog, but still not enough," Ryuukossei sneered, belching a last breath of youki-fire full in Kazan's face before he succumbed to the seal that would hold him suspended for many, many years. Kazan fell back, his breath glowing with the youki-fire that seared his lungs, and dropped to the ground, panting painfully. He collapsed to his small human form and stood, still panting, trying to pull in the ragged edges of his faltering gyre before it dissipated completely._

_Kouri glided down to join him at the base of the cliff. She did not like the look of his gyre; it was not consolidating back into its normal configuration. He looked up at her briefly, then asked, "Sesshomaru?"_

"_Unharmed," she answered._

_He nodded, sheathed his sword, looked at her one more time, then prepared to leave._

"_You came back," she said. "Why?" She truly had not expected him to come._

"_I love you, Kouri," he said after a long moment. "I have always loved you."_

"_Then why did you leave?"_

_He looked up at the brightness of the sky over the mountains, unwilling to look at her any longer. "I am not at all sure you ever loved me."_

_Stricken, she watched him take to the air and fly swiftly to the east to rejoin the other love of his life._

And so you left me to try to be with the one who cherished the things you loved, to die in her company. So, why do you keep coming back to haunt me? What good did your love do either of us?

Kouri dropped the jewel and shook her head, then sat looking into a distant space where the ghostly form of her mate stood looking back at her. She still had not looked into the depths of the jewel.

----------------------------

"So, even after he'd left her like that, he went back," InuYasha mused. "What a crazy thing to do."

"No more so than when you came today to rescue your brother's Rin. When Kazan-sama took people for his own, he belonged to them as much as they belonged to him, and that would not change until his dying day. That is the mark of a true Dog, and we see the same quality in you."

"Oh, great," InuYasha grumbled.

Karimaru's son smiled wryly. "We, at least, value it. We'll be in touch." He bowed, then departed into the west.

"Damn." InuYasha said softly as he watched the dog disappear over the western mountains. "Damn, damn, damn."

InuYasha tugged Rin's sleeve and said, "Come on, Kagome will be glad to see you. Let's go."

Shippo and the children jumped up excitedly when InuYasha and Rin entered the house, but Kagome could not help being struck by Rin's stricken face and InuYasha's somber expression.

"What happened?" she asked. "Why is Rin here? Where's Sesshomaru?"

Rin started crying, then ran into the pantry to hide.

"Rin-chan, what's wrong?" Tsuchiya called after her as he and Toushi ran to the pantry door to peer in. He looked back at his mother. "Mama?"

InuYasha pulled Kagome close in a tight embrace, breathing her scent in deeply, hoping to settle his roiling gut. If anything, the churning only got worse.

"InuYasha?" Kagome asked anxiously.

"Sesshomaru rescued his son, and just left us behind when he cleared out. I have no idea where he is. I'm about ready to kill that bastard."

"Oh. Oh, my." Kagome looked back toward the pantry, and listened to Rin's heartbroken weeping.

InuYasha also looked grimly at the pantry door. "Yeah..."

Kagome spent the next few hours settling the turmoil in her household. Tsuchiya and Toshi were alive with questions and were too young to be careful about what they asked and when they asked them. Rin tried to hold up under the onslaught as well as she could, but wound up retreating to the pantry several times to pull herself together. It was hard to piece together her story from the chaotic bits they got.

Kagome finally shoed the children away from Rin, fed her a hot meal and put her to bed. After Kagome tucked her in and dimmed the lamp, she looked around for InuYasha. He wasn't in the house; sometime after dinner, while she was doing evening chores, he had slipped outside. When she looked out the door, she saw him across the meadow in a tree, looking out at the stars. He hadn't taken refuge out there for a long time. She wondered what was eating him this time.

She slipped on a coat, then walked out to stand under the tree, also looking at the stars for a time. When he didn't volunteer anything, she said, "There's a lot you haven't told me yet, isn't there?"

"Yeah. I think I made one of the biggest fucking mistakes of my life today. I should never have stuck my neck out for Sesshomaru."

"What? But what about Rin?"

InuYasha shook his head and said wryly, "Yeah, well, I guess that part's OK, but I had no idea what I was getting mixed up in when I went along with him. There might have been a chance we could stay out of it before I stuck my stupid nose in the Dog's affairs today. Now the Forest Dogs want to pull me into the fight that's brewing over who should be the Lord of my father's clan, the Sky Dogs. We are in so much trouble."


	48. Chapter 48 Flotsam in Time

Chapter 48 - Flotsam in Time

Karimaru glowered at the door to his audience room after the messenger disappeared. So, a summons from the palace, and so soon after his meeting with InuYasha. It was much too coincidental. One of those tanuki must have let something slip. Still, he could not evade his mistress. It was best to get it over with.

Schooling his features into his bland court mask, Karimaru walked up the steps fronting the palace entrance, every bit the image of the urbane courtier. All the guards gave him a quiet glance and a slight bow as he passed; no warning flicks of an eyelid or quirk of the mouth to be seen. The scents of the halls were at their normal level of tension, at least, what passed for normal now. Perhaps the Lady was saving her tantrum for him alone. How delightful.

He nodded to the doorman at the entrance to the throne room and stood outside as he was announced. The doorman reappeared and nodded him in. He strode into the room and stood before the throne, bowing deeply. "Lady."

The Lady looked pensively for a moment at the small object in her hand, then she bounced it against the floor and caught it, holding up the strange ball of flashing lights. "Have you discovered any more about the magic that binds this?"

Karimaru's eyebrows rose in surprise. He scrambled to realign his thoughts. "No, my Lady."

"That is unacceptable," she snapped. "I cannot plan a campaign in the dark."

"Of course not."

The Lady tapped her claws impatiently on the arm of the throne, then looked at Karimaru sharply. "We need to get in closer." That was an order. How very ... convenient.

"I, too, have been, er, disturbed by my lack of knowledge. If all goes well, I should soon have someone in the heart of their household."

"Who?" she demanded.

"One of my daughters."

"How?"

"Really, it's very simple. What human village thinks twice when a stray pup appears in its midst? That this pup should gravitate toward those with dog blood should also seem natural."

The Lady frowned. "Won't that miko bitch notice this pup is youkai? She's supposed to be very sensitive."

"I procured a collar that masks the pup's youki," Karimaru replied. "The miko shouldn't sense a thing."

"I shall expect regular reports."

"Lady, we cannot approach too close or too often," cautioned Karimaru. "That will get noticed."

The Lady swallowed that observation with distaste. "Just get me the information."

"Lady." Karimaru bowed and withdrew.

-----------------------------------

The morning was brisk, with a biting wind and the sharp smell of melting snow in the air. Miroku paused at the door of Kanesuki's apothecary shop and squinted at the brightness of the sunshine glinting off the snow and ice after the darkness of the shop's interior. He settled his purchase of herbs tighter in its wrapping cloth, then walked across the square toward his house where Sango was waiting with a pair of sick children with fevers and racking coughs. He passed Minori near the well, cheerily saying, "Good morning, Minori-san."

"Houshi-sama."

Miroku caught a glimpse of dark almond eyes and a smooth, fair face, then Minori glanced aside, her face hidden by her broad hat and head scarf as she continued on her way to Kanesuki's shop for her own prescription of herbs. Miroku watched her slender, graceful form vanish through the door of the shop and sighed his appreciation. There was no denying Minori was the loveliest woman in the village. Even though she had set aside her bright, fluttering silks for an honest homespun yukata, there was no muting a beauty that rare. What a pity she still flinched away from a man's honest admiration. Her time in Sumio's castle had gutted her of a woman's normal needs and desires. It was such a travesty.

Sumio... Miroku scratched the back of his head pensively. Come to think of it, Sumio's tax collectors had not come calling last harvest. How very strange...

-----------------------------------

"Hold still," Kagome ordered. "Honestly, you're worse than the kids."

"Do you have any idea how much this tickles?" InuYasha demanded grumpily. He squirmed again under the onslaught of the next trickle of hair to fall across his face and down his chest.

"Yes," Kagome replied shortly.

"I still don't see why I can't have my shirt on," InuYasha complained.

"Hah!" Kagome retorted. "Last time, you whined for a week about how much the hair in your shirt itched."

"I did not!"

"You did."

"Well, maybe I mentioned it once or twice," InuYasha allowed.

Kagome paused and looked askance at him. "A. Week," she insisted.

InuYasha glared back, but couldn't hold it. His ears twitched irritably, but he let the subject drop.

Kagome drew the comb through his bangs and examined the length. The hair was just at the level where it was tickling the end of his nose; it was the only time she could get him to consent to a trim. She held the scissors level across his brow and snipped again. More hair fell across his face. He wiggled his nose furiously to relieve the tickle, looking like he was about to sneeze. Kagome withdrew the scissors and waited a moment for the tickle to abate.

"OK?" she asked.

InuYasha brushed his face. "Yeah."

She was over halfway across. She set the scissors on his brow again, just to the right of his nose.

InuYasha's nose twitched.

Kagome started the snip.

"KerCHEW!"

Just as Kagome cut, InuYasha's head snapped forward in an abrupt sneeze. When he looked back up again, he had a rakish triangular hole in his bangs over his right eye that extended nearly to the hairline.

"Gagh!" she cried. "What am I going to do with that?"

InuYasha rolled his eyes up to inspect the damage and shrugged. "Keh! No big deal. I can see; it's not in the way any more."

"But it looks so ... stupid." Kagome said unhappily.

"So fix it."

Kagome stared at him, trying to imagine what she could do. The options were to put a matching slash over his other eye or to cut everything back to the hairline. Both options would look even more ridiculous.

"Aaa, no. We're just going to have to leave it."

"Your call," he shrugged.

Kagome grimaced, then moved behind him. "Oh, well, let me square off your ends and we'll call it a day."

InuYasha endured the tickle on his back at his waistline for a few minutes, then Kagome declared she was done. She brushed the hair snippets aside and handed him his shirt.

"Good afternoon!" Miroku's voice came from the front porch.

"Good afternoon! Come in!" Kagome called as she gathered her tools to put them away.

Miroku came in the door and stopped short, blinking at InuYasha's new hairstyle.

"He sneezed just as I cut it," Kagome explained grumpily.

"Ah." Miroku took a moment to recollect his errand, then asked, "Do you have a few minutes?"

"Yeah," InuYasha replied as he finished tucking his shirt back into place and putting on his fire rat kimono. "What's up?"

"Don't you find it odd that we haven't had any visits from Sumio's people in over a year?"

InuYasha grimaced. "Frankly I've been too busy worrying about the dog clans to think about him. I guess he's decided we're too small to be worth his effort, which we are."

Miroku considered it for a moment, then said, "No, that's not how I read him. He's not the sort to let something go, especially after he was so thoroughly humiliated. I think he's planning a crushing blow, once he figures out how to get past you."

InuYasha growled very softly, deep in his throat, then he blew out a sharp breath and said, "He already knows how to get past me. He just needs to find a priest willing to work with him."

"What do you mean?"

InuYasha studied his wife for a time, assessing the changes that had occurred since that time after the rape, when she had been so wounded. The eyes gazing back at him were clear and steady, knowledgeable in their strength, but no longer innocent. She now knew the limits of his protection, knew she could still to get terribly hurt despite the best that he could do, but she had also learned she could live through it. At the time, he had told her very little of his side of the battle with Sumio; she had been so brittle and he had been deeply shamed by his failures. Now, though, in spite of her quietness, she would insist on knowing.

He sighed and finally told the tale of those three days when he had kited away, borne on the wings of outraged love and bitter hatred to confront Sumio, how he had nearly meet his demise, then about his escape to return, shaken and chastened, to stay by her side, feeling utterly impotent, while she healed.

"So that's what happened," Kagome said softly. "I wondered why you were so ... quiet. It wasn't like you."

Miroku was more focused on the details of InuYasha's time in Sumio's castle. "Have you contacted Nobie since then? Do you know what's going on over there? We won't have time to prepare a plan if we wait until Sumio's in the pass to move."

"No," InuYasha admitted. "I still don't have a way around the ofuda, and, as everyone is so pleased to point out, I can't go anywhere without drawing attention."

"Well, the first step to that would be learning to shut up," Shippo remarked drily. He had joined the party early in InuYasha's story, sitting quietly through the recital while he sorted through the contents of his pockets.

InuYasha bristled at the remark, but Miroku put his staff between them, saying, "Not now."

InuYasha settled back down again, then Miroku added, "Shippo and I can get in undetected. We've done it before, like when we got Kagome out of there. We can't just sit back and wait for him to move. We need to know what's going on in there. You mentioned you had some pass phrases?"

InuYasha sighed, then said, "I say, 'Dogs chase down their prey.' He says, "A tiger haunts the water hole.' He won't be easy to find. He lurks in the shadows of the castle."

Miroku repeated the phrases under his breath a few times to set them in his memory, then replied, "I expect, if he's any good, he will find us. Shippo, are you up for trying this before the pass opens?"

Shippo shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I can get us over the mountains easily enough."

"Good, let's get this trip planned."

-----------------------------------

A small group of young men stood in a cluster at the door to their dormitory, stamping their feet and blowing on their hands in the frigid early dawn.

"Where is he?" Take muttered under his breath. "It's time for archery practice."

"I'll go look," Kinji said, trotting back to the bed chambers, then returning soon afterward. "He's not back there."

"When was the last time anyone saw him?" Shogo asked.

"He stayed behind after the evening services, remember?"

"That's right."

"Oh, you don't suppose...?"

The young men looked at each other, eyes rolling.

"Well, I guess we'd better go check," Nobu said.

Together, they made their way across the great paved square, past the huge temple bell, and into the Amidado, the temple hall in Nagashima Honganji dedicated to Amida Buddha. There sat the strange young man they had found earlier that winter nearly frozen and delirious in the marshes that surrounded the temple. He was barely visible in the earliest glimmer of the morning light, still deep in meditation.

"Is he dead?" Take asked, watching the unmoving form.

"Nah, he's still breathing," Nobu replied.

"Hey, 'Daruma', can you feel your feet?" Kinji asked derisively. "I don't care if you've been here all night, you still need to do archery practice with the rest of us."

The half-lidded eyes of the meditating young man opened slowly, the distant air receded, then he rose wordlessly and glided after them to begin their morning routine.

"You made us late again! What is it with all that meditating, 'Daruma'? Amida doesn't require it to bring you to the Pure Land." Kinji walked beside the young man, berating him all the way to the archery field. He was getting sick of dragging him out of the Amidado and herding him about to his various activities.

Archery practice concluded when the ringing of the great bell announced the morning service. The archers scrambled to unstring the bows and extract the arrows from the targets, then place everything in their racks in the armory.

The bell thrummed again, charging the air with its deep notes as the entire congregation assembled in the goeido for the morning sermon.

"Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu." The chanted prayer grew in volume and intensity as the members of the congregation gathered and added their voices. The air grew heavy and sultry with the press of so much devotion. The heady atmosphere lifted the congregation into rapture as they reached out, offering their souls to Amida and his promise of salvation in the Pure Land in the West.

The priest arrived and took his place at the altar. The congregation soon settled to a great multi-headed creature that shuffled and shifted softly as it listened to the priest describing to them the glories of the Pure Land and the horrors of the Hell awaiting those who did not gain Amida's blessing and exhorting them to be single-minded in their devotion, always and forever dedicating themselves to their loving Buddha, Amida. The congregation punctuated each point in the sermon with "Namu Amida Butsu," then ended the service with another session of chanting the prayer before they dispersed to their work, hoarse and exhilarated.

The young man called Daruma lingered behind, his soul still vibrating from the fervor of the service. So many people, such singular devotion - he felt like a bird caught in a gale, his will ripped away by the force of the wind. He missed the vast stillness of Kurumi's tiny garden where he had just begun to make his own unique conversation with the infinite. Here, that conversation was impossible, his ability to connect seemed to have been pummeled away by the intense fervor of this temple.

He took a clarifying breath, pulling the air in deeply and pushing it out in a steady controlled stream; his trembling eased from him in shuddering waves that ran down his spine, along his limbs and flowed away from his fingers and toes. One more breath, and he stood, taut and still, his control still tenuous. He looked out across the courtyard at the great bell that dominated it, then on to the wall and gate that guarded the great temple.

Now, what was today's assignment again? He looked quickly about him and caught sight of the priest who was watching him from the doorway. He dropped quickly to prostrate himself before the priest, flushing with chagrin. He should have been gone long ago, tending to the livestock.

"Our services seem to unnerve you," the priest said, approaching him and crouching down to speak to him quietly. "You may sit up, boy," he added wryly. "It's hard to talk to the back of your head."

"Sensei, forgive me," the young man pleaded. "It is very different from my old master's teachings. I find it overwhelming."

"What did your former master teach?" the priest asked.

"He tried to get me to see how Things Are; we meditated a lot and tried to touch the Buddha source and, oh, I don't know. It's hard to explain and even harder to do."

The priest chuckled sympathetically. "It sounds like your old master studied Zen. That is a particularly abstruse discipline, one that most people find beyond them. We don't require anything that difficult in this temple. Amida, in his mercy, has opened a path to those who believe in him, whether they can meditate successfully or not. Those who are steadfast in his worship will go to the blissful Pure Land on their death to await their entry into Nirvana. Otherwise they have had to endure many turns of life's wheel and the torments of the Hells between times before they could hope for enlightenment and Nirvana."

"Can Amida truly do this?"

"If you believe, and join this temple in his worship. It has been many weeks since we found you in the marsh, and now that you have recovered, it is time for you to make your choice. Will you remain with us and become one of the congregation, or will you return to the outer world and seek another path?"

"Sensei... I don't know. I... I have not thought on this matter."

"I don't need an answer today. I expect you will have questions once you have had time to think. I will speak to you again in three days. For now, go back to your duties, observe our ways and consider if we can serve each other well."

-----------------------------------

Emma-O carried the Zen Master Kurumi's soul with him as he traveled the banks of the Stream of Time, moving forward to the time he would place Kurumi once more in the Realm of the Living. Emma-O had taken his cue from Ryuujin's hints at the earlier meeting of the kami. Kurumi was to be a teacher for the children they were fostering and he would need a full lifetime to regain his skills. That set the time, but left many details incomplete: how to ensure Kurumi had access to the children, how to ensure he got his training... The less these circumstances were forced by the kami and the more it was driven by the players themselves, the better it would work.

Emma-O slowed and contemplated the currents of these later years, where InuYasha's family flickered in and out of the flow, each glimmer marking a visit to modern times.

In the year 2000, as time was counted in this era, the child Tsuchiya made his first appearance as an infant. The earliest one could hope to effectively begin his training would be when he was about ten. Precocious little Toushi would be ready then too. So. Now, to count back the years needed for Kurumi to relearn his own skills. Emma-O worked his way upstream, then stopped at his calculated insertion point and watched the roiling currents of the time with dismay. This was no quiet period where change was constrained. All through the Edo period, Muchitsujo-rei had been tightly constrained, almost quelled. The realm had grown into a stagnant backwater without Muchitsujo-rei's more benevolent aspect, Kaeru-ki_,_ to guide its development. Then the Meiji revolution had taken place and Muchitsujo-rei had become ascendent again as the realm rushed to catch up with the rest of the world. Now, Muchitsujo-rei was rising to another peak as a great global war brewed. Kurumi must be born, grow and study in this chaotic stew of a time charged by Muchitsujo-rei's influence. Somehow, Emma-O had to keep Kurumi hidden, lest Muchitsujo-rei remember the Zen Master and remove him from the game.

Kurumi's soul hovered placidly in Emma-O's hands, a soft glowing cluster of light that arranged itself into perfect balance, much like a meditating monk in the lotus position. Kurumi had been silent to this point, his thoughts elsewhere as he waited for his return to Life. Now, though, as Emma-O hesitated, Kurumi peered through Emma-O's fingers at the roiling current that represented his new world.

"_Eh, you are troubled_," Kurumi remarked.

"_Yes, I am. This is when you must be born. Unfortunately, our opponent is strong here too and I fear he will find you before you can do your task._"

Kurumi remained silent for a time, watching the currents idly and feeling the kami's anxiety, then he said, "_Would Emma-O-no-kami do me the honor of sharing tea with me? I would enjoy this one last moment of peace before I rejoin the Living._"

Kurumi now appeared to stand beside the kami, clothed once more in flesh. He gestured to a small clearing beside the stream's edge. In the center of the clearing, a pot of water simmered over a small fire. Beside the fire lay two cushions and a small table laid out with all the accouterments for Tea. When Emma-O looked back at Kurumi's face, he could see all the glory of the Buddha-source looking out through his eyes.

Emma-O bowed to the vast presence and replied, "_The honor is all mine._" He settled himself at one cushion while Kurumi offered a small sweet, then deftly dipped water out of the pot and whipped the tea to a vivid green froth. Both Emma-O and Kurumi sipped the bitter tea meditatively and listened to the gentle burbling of the pot and the soft crackling of the fire. They discussed the beauty of the lotus-like shape of the tea bowls and the way the translucent glaze recalled the sheen of dew in the early morning.

Kurumi recited poetry.

_A no-ear banana,  hearing thunder roar,  opens its leaves; A no-eye sunflower,  seeing the sun,  turns its head._

Emma-O let it linger in his mind as Kurumi carefully rinsed the bowls and placed all the utensils back in their places. A gentle scolding from the Buddha-source: he was looking too hard. He knew the answer deep in his bones; he should relax and let it come.

Kurumi wiped down the last item in the tea set, then rose. The set vanished, then he and Emma-O returned to the stream's edge.

"_Of course! How very simple_," Emma-O said in wonder. He laughed with the joy of his relief as the answer to his dilemma shone in his mind.

"_My thanks, sensei_," he said to Kurumi, bowing. The amusement of the Buddha-source sparkled briefly in Kurumi's eyes, then he became once again wholly himself, a floating disembodied soul.

Emma-O caught the soul gently and, selecting his destination, he cast him into the stream. Emma-O chuckled again as Kurumi entered the Realm of the Living, now a mote in a certain woman's womb.

"_Safe indeed! It will take a great deal more imagination than Muchitsujo-rei has to find you there._"


	49. Chapter 49 Reconnaissance on Sumio

Chapter 49 - Reconnaissance on Sumio

"Mama, plee-e-e-eeze..." Tsuchiya pleaded, his golden eyes filled with forlorn desperation. "I'm the only guy in the village without it!"

"It" was the unique hairstyle with slashed bangs over the right eye, just like InuYasha-sama had. Although Tsuchiya was exaggerating somewhat to make his case, it was really was the latest fad among the village boys. A couple of the village mothers had been accommodating enough to cut their sons' hair as requested, but most of the haircuts in evidence were hatchet jobs done behind the barn with a purloined kitchen knife, and they looked like it.

InuYasha had thought he was being mocked when the first of these haircuts made their appearance. Miroku only just averted an ugly incident with a very proud seven-year-old who wanted to show InuYasha-sama how his hair looked cool now, too. He still didn't really believe anybody would want to be like him.

It put Kagome in an awkward spot. Tsuchiya just wanted to be like all the other boys, but Kagome knew InuYasha would have a conniption fit if Tsuchiya turned up with his hair cut, too.

"Tsu-chan, you know that haircut is just a mistake I made trimming Papa's bangs. He doesn't think it's so cool. He's just waiting for it to grow out, himself."

"But Mama..."

"I'm sorry, but..."

"I never get to do anything cool!" Tsuchiya shouted. He grabbed his monkey and stomped off into a corner to sulk.

"Tough call," Shippo remarked, looking up from the bundle he was packing for his and Miroku's expedition . "I mean, it's just hair, but InuYasha will drive us all crazy being snarky about it until it grows out."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Kagome sighed. "Now, let's go over your list. What are you taking with you?"

"Acorns for messages, leaves for casting illusions, firecrackers, the mouse, the snake, the horse. I'm leaving the top. When Miroku gets here, I'll set up homing spells in case we have trouble in the pass. Miroku is bringing a selection of drugs and poisons from Sango's stores, ofuda, and his shakujo. He's got the food. We both have winter cloaks."

"I'd feel better if you took some of my camping and first aid stuff," Kagome said anxiously.

"Kagome..." Shippo remembered well Kagome's massive backpack from the days of hunting the Shikon jewel. "We're trying to travel light, here."

"I'll keep it small," she promised as she went to the cabinets where she kept her medical stores. She pulled out some bundles of sterile bandages, tape, a bottle of antiseptic, soap and a towel and a few bundles of pills. She followed that up with her old camp stove, fuel, a small pack of matches, a miniature cook kit and some instant food packets. Shippo continued to grumble about overkill, but she insisted the additions were more than worth the extra weight.

Miroku and Sango arrived shortly after noon with their whole brood of girls. Shippo shuffled his bundle into Miroku's bag; the additions made tying the bag shut a chancy business. While Shippo and Kagome muttered "told you so" and "do it anyway" at each other under their breath, Miroku went down the line of his girls, from littlest to biggest, saying goodbye.

Sango clung to him especially long; she remembered too well the terror of Sumio's castle. Eyes bright with tears she was desperately trying to quell, she pressed a small, concealable knife in his hand and whispered fiercely, "Take it. You never know when you might need one."

"Of course," Miroku replied. "Now, don't fret. We'll be back in a few days."

InuYasha asked, "Are you sure you don't want me keeping an eye on you from the outskirts of town? I can be there to get you in a flash."

"No, you need to guard your family. Like you said, there's no telling what might suddenly boil over with the Dog Clans."

InuYasha grimaced; he hated being left out, but there was no arguing that he was the only one who had a hope of stopping a Dog strike.

Miroku picked up the now unwieldy bag and said, "Ready Shippo? I want to clear the pass while it's still light.

-------------------------------------

The snow on the mountains was glowing a rosy pink against a dusky purple sky when Shippo touched down again, nearly frozen and exhausted from pushing his way through the wild, icy wind currents that swirled around the peaks.

"Whew, that was a little too exciting," Miroku remarked as he dug in the bag for Kagome's little camp stove, cook kit and some packets of instant miso soup. "I'll get some food warmed up. Here, wrap up in this until I have the soup ready." He handed Shippo his cloak and a fluffy scarf.

"Y'y'y'yeah," Shippo replied, his teeth chattering a staccato beat. "J'j'just b'barely managed that last p'p'part. M'm'm'an I d'don't know when I've b'been s'so c'c'c'cold."

"Let's get you warmed back up, then let's see if we can find a better place to spend the night. It feels like there will be a hard freeze tonight."

"Ok'k'k'ay." Shippo took his bowl of steaming soup, very grateful now that Kagome had insisted on the stove and instant food packages. He sipped the soup, savoring the salty taste and the way the warmth radiated out from his stomach to diffuse through his body.

The evening grew rapidly darker as Shippo recovered. His shivering had barely abated when Miroku said, "If we're going to find a better spot for the night, we better do it now, while we can still see."

"Yeah," Shippo agreed wearily. "Let's do it." He took off his cloak reluctantly, handed it to Miroku to put back in the bag, then resumed the pink ball shape he used for flying.

The landscape wasn't encouraging. They were in a rocky ravine, just barely below the snow line. They had been blown off course going over the pass and were nowhere near Masahiro's village. Even from the air, they saw no signs of another village. There wasn't even a wood cutter's trail along the stream.

"Let's go downstream," Miroku suggested. "There's a better chance we'll find something there."

Shippo followed the course of the stream, flying just over the treetops as they both looked about for any sign of shelter. He was just starting to shiver again when Miroku pointed ahead to the far side of a bend in the creek. "There's something over there."

Shippo brought them to earth at the Torii gate of a tumbled down shrine. There was no sign the shrine had been visited in years. Much of the roof had fallen in, the courtyard was buried in fallen leaves and young trees pushed their way through cracks between the pavers.

"Wow, this place is dead," Shippo remarked. "I think even the god has left."

Miroku extended his senses and had to agree. There was no sense of a Presence at all. Even the life-spark of the trees felt muted.

"Do you think something happened here?" Shippo asked.

"I don't know," Miroku replied. "Normally, you feel something like that, but there's nothing. Too much nothing..."

"What do you think?"

"I don't think you're up to any more travel until morning, so we're stuck here. I don't feel any malice, but I'll take precautions anyway." He left an offering on the alter then erected a barrier of ofuda around a sheltered corner of the temple. The feeling of desolation diminished as they lit the camp stove and cooked their dinner. Sleep quickly overcame them as they became comfortably fed and warm.

A shaft of early morning sunlight entered through a break in the wall to fall across Shippo's face; he winced and sat up, blinking away the brightness, then looked around.

The shrine was still eerily quiet in the early morning light. The light rustlings Shippo made unpacking the kettle crackled harshly then seemed to get swallowed by the air. A distinct feeling of being watched crept into him as he picked up the kettle. He stopped moving and listened carefully for a long moment; there was nothing. He stood up abruptly and looked quickly around, hoping to startle the watcher into revealing itself. There was no hint of movement, but the throbbing sense of 'watching' intensified. Shippo focused on it, trying to determine what was out there. He felt no malice, no kindness, no intent, just ... watching.

Kettle in hand, he walked toward the center of the room, then stopped abruptly as he reached the edge of Miroku's barrier. Just beyond the invisible line that defined their enclosure, all of the leaves had blown aside, leaving a path of bare stone. Shaking, he stepped back and stared again across the shrine.

"M'Miroku?" His voice sounded thin, even to himself.

Miroku roused quickly and rolled to his feet, shakujo in hand. He looked at the line of bare stone surrounding them, then scanned the shrine carefully.

"Are you getting anything?" Shippo asked.

"Not much. Just..."

"Watching," Shippo supplied.

"Yes. Watching."

"I'd feel better if I could get a notion of what it wanted," Shippo said, "but I'm not. I can't even get a flavor of what it is."

"Eh?"

"You know, youkai, kami... I'm getting nothing I recognize."

"Mmm." Now that Shippo mentioned it, Miroku was not finding anything he could put a name to either. "Maybe the barrier is masking it."

"Miroku!" Shippo squeaked. "I don't think dropping the barrier is a good idea right now."

"We're going to have to eventually if we want to leave."

"Leaving sounds good," Shippo agreed. He quickly started stuffing all their belongings into the sack and tying it shut. "Except..." He looked out across the shrine at the great, dead emptiness waiting for them.

"We need a distraction," Miroku said, also looking across the shrine.

"Distraction?" Shippo echoed. He was so entranced by the lurking presence that his mind had stopped altogether.

"Yes, a distraction. You're the illusion master. Concoct us a ... a set of doubles or something that all launch out when I drop the barrier. Then we run."

Slowly, it penetrated through Shippo's bewitched mind; he started, looked down at the floor, then busily started sorting through his pockets.

"Right." He pulled out a handful of leaves and split them into two bundles. "Lean over. I can't reach that high," he told Miroku, beckoning him down. Shippo had grown a great deal in the last couple of years, but he was still only waist high to a grown man.

Miroku crouched down and let Shippo put one bundle of leaves on his forehead. Shippo put the other bundle on his own forehead and let his charm absorb some of the unique characteristics of each of them. As an afterthought, he allowed some of the leaves' characteristics transfer into himself and Miroku, making a muddled mess of all of them.

"All right, I'm ready," he said calmly, holding his mind tightly on his intended spell. "Pick up our stuff, get behind me and hold on to my shoulders. I'm transforming and launching the instant you drop the barrier."

Miroku juggled the bag and his staff for a while until he found a grip that allowed him to hold everything securely while grabbing on to Shippo.

"OK, this is as good as it's going to get," he said finally. "Counting down..... five, four, three, two, one!"

Miroku dropped the barrier and Shippo cast his leaves into the room. Several images of Miroku swept away by an airborne Shippo exploded away from their location as a swirl of leaves lifted from the floor.

"Thought so," Shippo thought with satisfaction; he joined briefly with the cluster of leaves, then flew out through the hole in the roof, for all appearances, just some more leaves disturbed by the rush of passing bodies.

One outside, he dropped low like settling leaves, then streaked downstream, hoping to put some serious distance behind him before It caught on.

"It didn't work," Miroku said, glancing back over his shoulder.

Shippo already knew that. The force surging behind him hadn't even hesitated. He only paid enough attention to his path to keep from crashing into something while he stretched his senses behind him, trying to figure out just what was pursuing them. He'd never encountered anything like it.

"Miroku, what is that thing?" he asked desperately. "It knew where we were all along, and I put our full imprint on those leaves: youki, reiki, the whole bit! I put leaf imprints on us and it still knew!"

"Damn!" Miroku flicked mentally through every book he had read, every story he had heard, searching for anything that could suggest what they had disturbed. He was drawing a blank. More importantly, he could not imagine how that thing was detecting them; Shippo was now a master illusionist and had the possibilities well covered.

An ofuda barrier had kept it back last night. Perhaps he could drive it back by using them again. He fished in the pouch concealed in his robes and pulled some out, then looked back over his shoulder. It was still there, right on their heels as it were. Miroku muttered a sutra, then cast the paper behind him. The thing slowed momentarily, but continued chasing them.

"It doesn't like ofuda," Miroku told Shippo, pulling a couple more out of his pouch.

"That's good, but be careful with those things," Shippo warned. "They don't agree with me too well either."

Miroku muttered another sutra and released his next bundle. Once again the thing hesitated, then surged back after them, closing the lost distance quickly. Miroku checked it again and was relieved to see it seemed to be fading.

"I think this is working," he told Shippo, pulling out another bundle. He was starting into the next sutra when Shippo had to dodge quickly around a boulder and navigate a tight S curve in the ravine. Miroku had to grab on quickly to stay aboard through the abrupt course changes with the ofuda still in his hand. As soon as the papers touched Shippo, he popped back into his fox shape and fell to Earth, stunned. Both of them landed hard and rolled and bounced across the rocky landscape, finally coming to a halt, scratched, bruised and dazed on the far side of the creek.

Miroku gathered his scattered wits and fumbled in his pouch for more ofuda. The papers clasped in one hand and his staff ready in the other, he waited for the attack, but nothing came. Cautiously, he backed up until he was beside the still-stunned Shippo and waited. Still nothing, and he couldn't sense the Thing in the area any more. Miroku set a barrier around Shippo, then set about gathering up their belongings. The sack had burst open on impact, scattering its contents over a wide area. Once Miroku had everything back together, he used his cloak to block up the rip and tied the sack closed again.

Shippo was starting to come around as he finished.

"How are you feeling?" Miroku asked.

"Like I had the stuffings knocked out of me," Shippo replied.

"Well, you did, in a couple of ways," Miroku replied. "Can you fly?"

Shippo tried to transform, but couldn't muster the strength.

"So I guess we walk," Miroku said, picking up the sack.

"Uh, what happened to the.. um, you know, It."

"I'm not sure. It didn't seem to follow us around that bend. I haven't felt it since we landed."

"That's strange."

"I know, and I don't trust it any more than you do. Let's get out of here."

Miroku led the way, with Shippo trailing behind him as well as he could. It wasn't long before Miroku was forced to add Shippo to his burden, carrying the exhausted and still woozy little fox down the ravine and onto a wood cutter's trail that led into a village at the mouth of the ravine.

They didn't stay long. The villagers didn't care for anything that came from the ravine. It wasn't until the next village that they learned the story of the shrine and its weird occupant.

They didn't know much. It had all happened at least two generations ago and only the old grannies really remembered it. The shrine had marked a sacred spring long ago, whose waters were potent and fertile. The shrine had been a prosperous one, supported by all the grateful farmers who used its water. The farmers and the kami had been on good terms, until one day, just after harvest, when the farmers had gone to celebrate their bounty with their god, they found the priest and his family missing and the shrine feeling completely abandoned. The water had lost its virtue and from then on, anyone who disturbed the shrine met with death a short time later.

"Did you ever learn what became of the priest and his family?" Miroku asked.

"Nay, not a thing," Granny Aiko said. "Nor the kami neither. But there's rumors as they were eaten, body and soul, the whole lot of them."

"What, the kami too?"

"Aye, the kami too. The souls get sucked out of anything that's there. You've noted how nothing prospers there, not the trees, not nothing. It's a great wonder you got out, and not something that most would believe means well."

-------------------------------------

Tsuchiya made a habit of avoiding Miroku and Sango's girls when possible, especially the older ones, Hisui and Shinju, since they were so bossy, but when Sango-san had dropped off her brood with Mama so she could exterminate a nest of rat-youkai in Kurato-san's barn, Tsuchiya had noticed that Hisui and Shinju had both brought sewing equipment with them: cloth, thread, needles and ... scissors.

He watched them from across the room as he practiced with his top, screwing up his nerve to ask if either of them would clip his hair. He chose Shinju since she was less bossy and less likely to tattle.

"All right, I'll do it ... for a kiss," Shinju said coyly.

A kiss? Tsuchiya wrinkled his nose, taken aback at the request. It struck him as a mighty strange payment for a little favor. Seriously, who ever wanted a kiss?

Upon further consideration, it seemed like quite a deal. He'd been worried about having to hand over his top or his ball to get the job done. A kiss was really cheap.

"Um, OK."

Shinju wrapped up her practice sewing, including the scissors that had first caught Tsuchiya's attention, and looked around carefully through supposedly downcast eyes.

"Meet you behind the outhouse," she whispered, then got up quietly and slipped through the door.

Tsuchiya watched her go, half elated, half apprehensive. After a couple of minutes, he got up and headed toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Mama asked automatically as she worked on changing Noriko's diaper.

"Outhouse, uh, I gotta..." He flushed and hoped Mama couldn't hear his wildly thumping heart.

She nodded and he was on his way.

Shinju was kneeling behind the outhouse, her bright, dark eyes glancing around the corner when he arrived. He knelt down in front of her as she unwrapped the scissors from the cloth.

"Lean forward," she ordered.

He tipped himself forward, hands on his knees.

She got up on her knees, fluffed his bangs straight, then slid her scissors across his brow. *snip* Hair cascaded over Tsuchiya's right eye. She fluffed his hair again, then said, "That's good."

The wild thumping in Tsuchiya's chest accelerated. He had his coveted haircut, he was going to catch it big time from Mama, and now he had to kiss a girl. He'd only ever kissed Mama and Grandma, just a bump of his lips on their cheeks. Aunt Sakura disdained such displays, to his boundless relief. The old woman terrified him, with her direct, piercing gaze and her booming, no-nonsense voice.

Shinju knelt expectantly in front of him, eyes bright and cheeks flushed. Tsuchiya supposed she might have been pretty, except that he was too scared to think any such thing. Swallowing down the enormous lump that suddenly appeared in his throat, Tsuchiya leaned forward to bump his lips on Shinju's cheek, just like he did with Mama and Grandma. Shinju turned her head at the last instant and their lips brushed.

Tsuchiya jerked back, blushing mightily. He was prepared to kiss Shinju on the cheek (just barely) but he was not up for kissing her like that.

"Hey, what are you two up to?" Tsuchiya and Shinju both jumped guiltily at the sound of Sango's voice. Sango, returning from her extermination job, had had a clear view of the back of the outhouse as she topped the stairs. She walked to the children and looked down at the two guilty faces.

"Oh, ho, so Tsuchiya-kun has his haircut, does he?" Amusement leaked around Sango's mock-stern voice and her eyes sparkled with good humor.

"Umm, yeah." Tsuchiya had actually forgotten the haircut in his panic following that kiss.

"That's enough mischief for one day. Come on, you two." Sango steered the children back to the house.

-------------------------------------

The River Woman broke the surface of her natal pool, gasping. The water at this time of year was icy and bracing; it brought a cleansing clarity to her thoughts that had been missing when she had taken her leave from the game.

She had been very careful to revisit her river periodically since that crisis a couple of years ago when she had nearly destroyed herself and the kamis' campaign by overextending herself. This time, she had arrived in a temper to the magical pool that was the wellspring of her river. Here, many millennia ago, she had hatched and bonded to this place, her magic twining with the river's power to make a holy place that sustained her as she sustained the river.

She dove again and sank through the crystalline water, savoring the icy tingle across across her skin and the way her hair was gently tugged by the mild current. Here, it was impossible to fret about the annoyances that had been consuming her. She could pull back into the silence and retake her perspective.

For a great long moment, she floated, unmoving, in limitless space, a tiny mote of life in an icy pool, then she moved again, stretching out to her true form to flow through the water of the pool, past the riffles at the foot of the spring and down through the rocky stream with its grasses and fish, hibernating turtles and frogs, the little sparkles of life that glimmered under leaves, tucked into crannies in the rocks or glowed softly through their covering of sand, those tiny eggs and seeds that would burst open when the days warmed once more.

The stream leapt gaily down the mountain, splashing and surging through falls and rapids, crystal clear and flashing rainbows in the sunlight, writhed around boulders, then smoothed out into its channel in a narrow valley, still hurrying eagerly to its confluence with the great brown river below. The River Woman hurried with it, sliding over gentle ripples and riding out to swirl in the eddy where her river met the mightier river below.

He was waiting for her, the great brown god of the lower river, the lord of the fertile, silty waters that sprang from marshy springs far away and fed multitudes in their stately path through marshes and plains to the sea.

Mingled waters, mingled lives; he greeted her joyfully, relishing her lively clarity while she basked in his warmth and quiet strength. Together, they traveled down their shared domain, that stretch of the river that started at their confluence and ended at the sea.

"_I've missed you_," he said at length.

"_And I, you. You're a balm to my soul_."

"_Can you stay for a season?_"

"_Not yet. A few days only._"

They drifted down the river for a time, lost in their own thoughts. The River Woman's mind returned back to the game, to her annoyance with Ebisu and the way he was agitating Sumio's domain. Ebisu's annoyance with Sumio had escalated to a personal vendetta and he had adopted several member of the castle staff, guided by the hidden ninja Kakusaretayama Nobie, as his agents to remove him. Muchitsujo-rei gleefully threw indiscriminate retaliations at Ebisu's agents and favorites, riling Ebisu even more with each shot. The River Woman had been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to keep up with the flurry of developments in the castle, trying to make sure her overall campaign did not get ruined by this small, if furious, eddy in the currents. Her temper started rising again.

"_I only get to see you when you're vexed,_" her companion murmured softly.

Rueful, she looked up through the water to where the sunlight danced on its surface in swirling patterns shot with sparkles, and sighed. It was true. She only took refuge here when she needed to cool off.

"_I'm sorry. You deserve better._"

"_What is it this time?_" His great affection shone through his mildly exasperated tone.

"_Ebisu. He just can't leave it alone. He became offended with Sumio's treatment of his honest, hardworking subjects and he's doing everything he can think of to destroy him. It's taking everything I have to keep him from succeeding._"

"_And this mortal is important, why?_"

"_Muchitsujo-rei has a lot invested in Sumio. He's using him as his primary agent to take out my declared anchor. As long as he's busy managing Sumio, we can keep tabs on Muchitsujo-rei, and I can set other possibilities into play unobserved._"

The River Lord chuckled. "_Muchitsujo-rei __is__ busy isn't he?_"

"_Well, yes, but..._" The River Woman replied with overflowing frustration.

"_But what? This isn't the Water Way. You won't win a head-butting contest with Ebisu. He's much too stubborn. Flow with him, use his desires._"

Use his desires... Muchitsujo-rei really was very busy hunting Ebisu's agents. She just had to make sure neither of the kami fully succeeded, a much easier proposition than stopping either of them. Her mood lightened as she sorted through ideas to keep that conflict roiling.

A touch, light but insistent, brought her back to the river and her companion. "_That can wait. If I'm only to have you for a few days, I'll have your thoughts here, please. Come._"

The merchant boats plying the river saw nothing as the kami flowed beneath them; the fishermen bobbing in the channel felt the ripple as something large passed by. Some saw a brief change in the water, a brown-green streak that flowed beside a sinuous swirl of uncommon clarity; they blinked and thought briefly on what it might mean, then returned to checking their nets. The priest of a sacred isle in the heart of the river felt them arrive and hastened to perform a ceremony to welcome them.

-------------------------------------

"OK, so now what?" Shippo asked as he sat glumly on top of a sake barrel in the darkness of a brewer's cellar.

Shippo and Miroku were in Sumio's castle town, in hiding. Shippo had disguised them both as slightly shabby street performers, but they had had trouble at the gate producing an acceptable pass. Miroku had slipped a couple of coins into the captain's palm, but the bribe backfired; a moment later they were surrounded by guards with their spears lowered at them. Shippo threw a firecracker on the ground, amplifying it with foxfire into a huge bang with lots of colorful flashing lights. He and Miroku bolted as the guards rocked back and soon they were dodging through the streets and alleys with a pack of guards haring after them, intent on taking them to Sumio's castle in chains. They were snatched off the street by the brewer as they rounded a corner in the tradesman's district stuffed in his cellar in with strict orders to remain absolutely quiet.

A short time later, they heard the guards clattering around upstairs while the brewer protested that he had seen nothing, since he had been at the back of the store measuring rice for his next vat of sake. He bought them off easily with a bottle of "my finest, reserved for the Lord's palace".

"Well, you certainly aren't leaving here to wander the streets," the brewer replied. "Sumio-sama has strict orders that anyone without a proper pass is to be taken to the palace immediately. We haven't seen any of those people come back out."

"What's going on in there?" Miroku asked.

"Better not to ask," the brewer said. "Don't want to appear inquisitive. I don't know anything and I intend to keep it that way."

"You knew enough to take me off the street," Miroku stated.

"That's just common decency. We watch each other's backs."

"Even so, we escaped those guards awfully easily. Why didn't they come down here?" Miroku asked.

The brewer shrugged. "Eh, their hearts aren't really in it, you know. They make a great show for their captain, with lots of noise and ruckus when they're chasing someone. It gives us a chance to snatch their quarry away and hide it, then they get a little gift and go away until next time."

"Interesting..." It seemed there was a full-blown undeclared rebellion running its course in Sumio's domain. Miroku wondered how widespread it was, if there was some mastermind orchestrating it or if it had just grown organically in response to Sumio's abuses. It did go a long ways toward explaining why Sumio had not been harassing InuYasha's protectorate. "How long has this been going on? Are all of the guards involved or just that lot?"

"That's an awful lot of questions for 'just a street actor'. You're much too interested in the way of things here for any entertainer I've ever met. Who are you, really?" the brewer demanded.

"We're just performers, passing through," Miroku replied. "I do want to know what to tell my guild brothers about what to expect here."

"You'll tell them to stay out. I would have thought the word was out already; we haven't seen your sort through in over a year."

Miroku grimaced. "Someone needed to find out the latest. I drew the short straw."

"Ain't you the lucky one?" The brewer said sardonically.

"He always was," Shippo agreed drily.

"Eh, well, I'll get you out of here after dark. You just stay put until then." The brewer returned upstairs, then Miroku and Shippo heard him bar the door. They both blew out a frustrated breath.

"What do you think?" Shippo asked quietly.

"He doesn't believe us any more than I believe him," Miroku replied. "He knows what's going on around here very well indeed. He's probably sending word to his superiors and getting instructions."

"I don't like it," Shippo muttered. "We're trapped here. Who knows what he's going to come back with?"

"We aren't completely helpless," Miroku replied. "For instance, they don't know you're really kitsune. Get a few of your tricks ready in case this goes bad. I'm going to see what else we have to work with down here."

He explored the room carefully in the faint light coming through the cracks in the door and found a cleverly hidden bolt hole in the far corner. Shippo explored the bolt hole with him, following it to a hidden entrance into the alley a few doors down.

"Great! Let's get out of here," Shippo said.

"No," Miroku replied.

"What? Why not?"

"If this expected meeting goes right, we stand to learn a great deal about what's going on here without having to enter the castle."

"Do you really think it's worth the risk?" Shippo sounded very dubious.

"Yes, I do."

They returned to the basement and moved a couple of barrels to hide the fact they had breached the bolt hole, then got what rest they could until the brewer returned.

The door upstairs opened several hours later and the brewer entered with a woman who was carrying a small jar and four other men. The men wore cloths over their faces that left only their eyes visible; they moved with a fluid, efficient grace that suggested much physical training and their eyes noted the location of everything in the cellar with quick professional flicks. They arranged themselves around the room in a pattern that took control of the situation. It looked very casual, but Miroku noted how each of them placed his hands in a common location for drawing a concealed weapon.

Once the men were in place, the woman stepped forward with her hand in the jar, then quickly broadcast a handful of purification salt in a wide arc across the room. Shippo cried out in pain and collapsed as the salt hit him; all of his illusions were abruptly dispelled.

"Huh. A Buddhist priest and a kitsune..." the stocky man in the center observed. "What manner of priest associates with fox demons?"

"Maybe the sort that Sumio is looking for?" the tall man in the near corner said.

"No!" Miroku yelped. "The last thing I want is to be forced into Sumio's service! Not after what he did to my wife!"

"Wife, eh?" the stocky man snarled. "This story just gets more improbable. I think we should just stop this here before it gets out of control."

"No, wait..." This came from the short, slight man in the far corner. "I think I recognize them. What else happened in the castle the day the demon brought down the gate?"

"The demon... Oh, you mean InuYasha? He was making a distraction so Shippo, here, and I could get into the dungeon and get out his wife. We got her. We also opened all of the other cells."

"Including mine," the short man replied.

"Not so fast," the stocky man warned. "There's enough people who know that tale for it to have gotten around. I'd like a better proof this one's safe."

Miroku took a breath and played his trump card. "They say 'Dogs chase down their prey.'"

"'A tiger haunts the water hole,'" the slight man replied. "Where is InuYasha?"

"Nobie?" Miroku asked. The slight man nodded.

"InuYasha's having problems with the youkai side of his family. He can't afford to leave his wife and children unguarded. He also is much too conspicuous; he'd be noticed immediately, so we came instead."

"And you weren't?" the stocky man snorted. "That little flash-up at the gate has been the talk of the town."

"Yes, well, that didn't go as we had hoped. We weren't prepared for this level of security."

"Just how do you tie into InuYasha?" the tall man asked.

"We've been friends for oh, what is it, about ten years. We met on a demon hunt. We both had compelling reasons for destroying a certain demon and we teamed up to pool our talents. Right now, my family is living under his protection in the same village."

"So you have real experience with devils and youkai?" the fourth man asked.

"Yes. That has been my specialty for years. My wife and I do exorcisms and exterminations."

"And the kitsune?"

"Also a friend from those times. He was a kit when we met him and he's grown up with us."

"Is he trustworthy?" the stocky man asked. "Kitsune often prefer their tricks to keeping promises."

"He knows when it's OK to indulge in tricks and when it's not."

The stocky man beckoned the others and they muttered together for a time.

"Well, now, we might be able to help each other out," he said. "We know most of what's going on in the castle, but there's one area we haven't been able to penetrate. There's a section in the castle that's absolutely sealed off. The more sensitive of us can feel some sort of youki seeping through the walls, but we haven't been able to get in close enough to find out what's going on. Only Sumio and his top echelon go in and out of that section. Them, and the women from the House of the Chrysanthemum. That house caters to certain ... tastes. We haven't been able to infiltrate that house and Sumio and his men know each of the entertainers. You and your kitsune should be able to get in, though."

"Why us?"

"The kitsune, of course. With his talents for illusion, you can be anyone. We're good, but we're still only human."

The next day offered an opportunity to enter the castle. The ninjas ambushed two women of the House of the Chrysanthemum and their girl servant on their way to the castle and stripped them of their clothes and other accouterments. A short time later, Miroku found himself dressed in one of the women's clothes, Nobie in the other's clothes while Shippo took the part of the girl servant. Shippo carefully made up the rest of the details with his illusion spells, then they approached the castle. Nobie spoke for them at the gate; the guard on duty handed them off to his captain, whom Miroku and Shippo recognized from their encounter at the town gate.

"You're early," he said jovially. "Allow me to escort you back, and then, perhaps, we may pass the time until Sumio-sama requires you agreeably."

While Nobie fluttered a flirty response, Miroku wondered with a jolt just how thorough Shippo's illusions were. He shot a nervous glance at the young fox; the servant-girl face looking back at him remained calm and impassive. Miroku swallowed; there was nothing for it but to trust Shippo's talents.

"Choucho-san sounds different today," the captain remarked as he led them into the castle.

"My last client requested 'the deep kiss'. He was very enthusiastic and I quite strained my throat," Nobie replied.

"A little warm sake should fix that right up," the captain said as he beckoned a servant and ordered sake for Sumio-sama's chambers.

"Captain Sadao-san is too kind," Nobie murmured.

Sake was sounding remarkably good to Miroku too. He was wondering how long they were going to have to maintain these disguises and just what they would be required to do to sustain them. It wasn't a happy thought.

Captain Sadao led them into the appointed room and slid the door closed behind them. Sumptuous cushions were scattered about on the mats and a brazier burned gently in one corner on a slate platform. The screens set before the door featured paintings of a particularly lurid eroticism; Miroku had thought he was a sophisticated man of the world, but he had never even heard mention of half of the activities that were portrayed so explicitly on those screens. He stared at them with fascination, wondering just how anyone came up with that stuff in the first place. Some of them looked very interesting. Could he talk Sango into trying them once he got home?

Shippo stepped on his foot surreptitiously. "Keep your mind on business, perv-boy," he hissed under his breath.

"My mind is always... aah, Captain." Miroku turned and found Captain Sadao had joined him at the screen.

"Are you selecting tonight's entertainment?" the captain asked. "The screen does excite the imagination. What do you say you and I take a go at that one?" He pointed to a picture that looked more like a man trying to break an unruly horse than a man sharing pleasure with a woman. "I've always fancied trying that with a sturdy wench like you," he added, grabbing Miroku's butt and giving it a squeeze.

!*P**O**W*! Captain Sadao slammed against the opposite wall then crumpled down its face to lie in a heap on the floor.

"So you like a sturdy wench, do you? How's that for a sturdy wench?" Miroku demanded hotly.

"That's not very ladylike," Nobie commented with bemusement as he looked at the unconscious man.

"I want him to remember to never do that again!"

"There might be a little problem with that. I doubt very much he's going to remember any of tonight."

"You should count yourself lucky that Sango chose to slap you all those times," Shippo said. "I bet she packs a serious punch too."

Miroku stopped and blinked. He looked down at Shippo a moment later, completely nonplussed. "You think?"

Shippo rolled his eyes.

A soft cough and a knock on the door brought them back to their situation. Nobie slipped behind the screen to open the door and accepted the tray of sake, then dismissed the servant.

"Sumio is on his way," he reported as he returned around the screen. "We don't have much time left." He dribbled some of the sake on the unconscious Captain Sadao, then put the rest aside. "He's drunk, if anyone asks."

Nobie looked around quickly, then started working across the room, searching for hidden doors and alcoves. Miroku paused for a moment to focus on the room's aura; it was very unusual. He looked from object to object, but could not see anything that looked like its source. Closing his eyes, he turned slowly around in a circle, 'looking' for the source with his spiritual inner eye. The entire room glowed softly with a chilly brightness that gently extracted energy from the surroundings. Off to his left, near a back corner, the brightness was slightly stronger. He followed it, eyes still closed and arm outstretched.

"Do you have something?" Nobie asked.

"Yes, something. I'm not sure what, yet." He continued until he was standing just in front of the focus, then opened his eyes. He was standing in a bare corner of the room, about two feet from the wall.

"Um, there's nothing there," Nobie observed.

"Nothing visible, but it's right here." Miroku marked out its boundaries with his hands, a rough rectangle floating in space with no depth.

"So, what is it?"

"I don't know. Maybe a gate? "

"A gate to where?"

"That's the question, isn't it? It doesn't seem open." Miroku reached out to touch the gate. As his hand neared, the gate became a shimmering, rippling sheet of energy that resisted his approach. He pushed harder and the barrier bulged in, glowing brightly, then rippled back when he withdrew his hand. "It feels like silk charged with reiki," he reported.

"Reiki?" Nobie asked, startled.

"Reiki. It's not demonic."

That attracted Shippo's attention. He came closer and examined the gate himself.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "It doesn't feel pure enough." He reached out a hand to touch it. Reiki exploded in a white burst from the gate, blinding them all. When their vision cleared, they could see that Shippo's illusions had been blown away.

"OK, it's reiki," he croaked in a strangled voice, his fur still fluffed out to its fullest extent from the blast.

"Now we're in for it," Nobie said. "Something on the other side has noticed us."

The hair on the back of Miroku's neck raised up as he watched the gate flare again, then ripple in shimmering purple and pink lights as something moved about on the other side, questing. He had to do something. Ofuda? What was he going to fasten them to? There was nothing but air before him. The gate rippled again, like a sail in a freshening breeze. Miroku pushed back, his fingers leaving trails of fiery brightness as they moved across the fabric. Struck by a sudden impulse, he wrote the Dharani of Removing Disasters across the gate with his finger. The scripture remained for a moment in brightly glowing figures, then suddenly vanished, leaving traces of deepest black in their vision. The gate ran rapidly through a rainbow of colors, then vanished with a flash, leaving no trace of its former presence.

Shippo proved to be too stricken to rebuild their disguises, so they beat a hasty retreat before Sumio arrived, guided by Nobie, who knew the castle intimately.

-------------------------------------

The Gatekeeper continued to examine the fabric of the boundary guarding the Realm of the Dead, looking for the the thin spot he had just been found. How very baffling; he was just checking the extent of the damage when the thin spot had suddenly resumed its normal composition. Since nothing had come through, he eventually sighed and continued his normal inspections.

-------------------------------------

Ebisu released his players and looked about Sumio's entertainment room with satisfaction. Truly, this was a good night's work. Sumio's entertainers were now much too compromised to retain their contract, his captain of the guard was sure to be punished for his disgraceful conduct (Ebisu never had liked the man), and as an added bonus, that priest had destroyed some clandestine project Muchitsujo-rei had in progress. Laughing, he moved on to the stables to see what kind of mischief he could stir up amongst the horses.

Muchitsujo-rei returned from his latest foray in search of the magical young monk later that night, hoping to continue his project of surreptitiously breaching the boundary to the Realm of the Dead. The fabric was now quite thin where he had been slowly eroding it away; he could almost see through it. Within a month, he hoped to complete the breach and slip through to steal the Shikon jewel.

When he entered the chamber, it reeked of Ebisu and his half-formed breach was completely gone. Howling, he flew to the stables, seeking vengeance.

-------------------------------------

Miroku and Shippo returned to their village three days later in the afternoon and spent the remainder of the day cloistered in consultation with Sango, InuYasha, Kagome, Kaede and the village elders. The village, which had been tense during their absence, now relaxed to a more tranquil state as the news was passed about of Sumio's troubles.

Much later that night, the new tranquility was shattered by Sango's outraged roar.

"You want me to try what?!"

"Now, my love, it wouldn't hurt to be a bit more flex..."

"You PIG!"

!***POW***! *Clatter-clatter* whump!

Several curious pairs of eyes peered out from the surrounding houses to see Miroku sprawled out in the middle of the muddy street amid a pile of tumbled-over firewood.

"I'll be damned," he muttered under his breath as he rubbed his jaw. "She used her fist."

-------------------------------------

_Author's Note__: If anyone at all is interested in what I've been reading to inform my story, I'm starting a bibliography in my profile. There's some cool stuff there._


	50. Chapter 50 The Monster within Noriko

Chapter 50 - The Monster within Noriko

"Honestly, is it that hard to keep track on one little boy?"

"Yes, InuYasha, obviously it is that hard to keep track of one little boy!"

It had been three months since Tsuchiya had appeared with his bangs cut in the 'InuYasha-sama' style, and since then InuYasha had not given it a day's rest. While Tsuchiya remained blissfully oblivious to the fuss he was causing, Kagome had been driven to the screaming edge of exasperation.

"If I hear one more word about Tsuchiya's hair," she growled, "I just might shave your head!"

"Mine!  He's the one that..."

"Sss...."

InuYasha clamped his jaws shut as he heard her starting to summon up a 'Sit!' If she put enough of those in a row, maybe she could manage to shave his head.

Kagome huffed grumpily, then said, "All right, if you think it's so easy to keep track of Tsuchiya, here's your chance to prove it. He's yours while we're at the traders' fair today."

"Uh..." InuYasha's eyes widened briefly.

Before he had a chance to think of some way to wiggle out of it, Kagome pushed her case. "Look, I have a whole list of medicines and herbs to restock, and so does Sango. For once, we'd like a nice relaxed day with the merchants. I can manage that if I just have Noriko with me. You take Tsuchiya and Toushi and enjoy yourselves with the jugglers and such, and I'll meet you when we're done."

"Psht. Why don't we just go together?" he asked.

"The older two have been pestering me all morning to leave soon, but Noriko's still napping. She'll be much more cheerful if she's rested. We'll catch up this afternoon."

"OK, fine. I'll see you later." InuYasha gathered up his very excited older children and departed for Masahiro's village and the fair. Kagome chuckled as he vanished. Easy, indeed. Boy, was he in for it.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Noriko was a sweet, even-tempered, happy child. Nevertheless, Kagome could cheerfully strangle the girl. After enduring Tsuchiya's boundless energy and Toushi's hot temper, what could such a mellow, easy-going baby do to drive her mother to the shrieking heights of itchy-fingered frustration?

It was now mid-afternoon and Kagome had spent the last two hours trying to poke a sufficient amount of food into Noriko's mouth to sustain life. Noriko wasn't flatly refusing, she just viewed food as a constant, slow-paced sampling operation. If she had been large and robust like her older siblings, Kagome wouldn't have worried so, but Noriko remained tiny and grew very slowly.

In those last two hours, to the best of Kagome's estimation, Noriko had actually swallowed three tiny spoons of mashed peaches, five spoons of rice gruel and had nursed for an accumulated time of five minutes.

What had Noriko done with the remaining 114 minutes of that time? Gruel and peaches had swished in and out of her mouth, been massaged in her hair and artfully applied to her tray. Noriko had grabbed the spoon at least 20 times ("I do!") and flung the contents across the room or crammed it up Kagome's nose. It was a pity osmosis was not a viable feeding option; Noriko had far more food on her than in her.

The solid foods were bad enough, but when push came to shove, it was Noriko's nursing habits that were driving Kagome stark, raving insane. The village women generally nursed their children until they were about two years old. Noriko was currently 18 months old. Kagome was not at all sure she could withstand another six months.

It always started with Noriko tugging on the leg of her hakama and looking up. "Ummm, ummm," with a pleading look was the signal Noriko wanted to nurse.

Kagome would pick her up and settle down on a cushion and giver her a breast. Noriko would nurse just exactly long enough to get the milk flowing, then stop and look around. If Tsuchiya or Toushi were doing anything even remotely interesting, this could grab her attention for up to ten minutes, but heaven forbid that Kagome put her down and go do something else. Eventually she would get back to business, nurse for a few more licks, then she'd start playing. Massaging Kagome's breast to watch the milk beading up was popular. So was making a smeary mess. At some point in the operation, she would decide to change breasts to see if the other one was tastier. Kagome gritted her teeth through all of this in the desperate hope that something was actually getting swallowed.

She was feeling particularly abused this afternoon. She should have been at Sango's house an hour ago to go to the fair and she was still nowhere near ready.

"Kagome-chan, what on earth is going on in here?" That was Sango coming to the rescue. Over the years, she had become accustomed to the regular breakdowns in Kagome's household and had developed a sixth sense for when she needed to bail Kagome out again.

Noriko's head snapped around at the sound of Sango's voice, but she failed to let go of Kagome's nipple on the way.

"Augh! Oww!"

"Ooh, girl, that's gotta hurt," winced Sango. "That's no way to treat your mama who feeds you," she added to Noriko. "If you were mine, I'd have weaned you by now."

"Really?" Kagome asked. "She's not even two yet."

"I know, but there are limits, and my girls know it. Have you tried flicking her cheek whenever she does anything too obnoxious? A little feedback can work wonders."

"I know, but that's not the real problem. The part that's most annoying is that she never gets down to business and just eats. I'm tired of being her sucky-toy."

"Tsk, Kagome-chan, you can't let her get away with that stuff," said brisk, no-nonsense Sango. "Give her a reasonable amount of time, then cut her off for an hour or two. She'll figure it out."

Kagome sighed. "I'd feel better about doing that if she weren't so tiny. Tsuchiya and Toushi were both much bigger at this age."

"Eh, some people are just small by nature. You're not so big yourself."

"Oh, I don't suppose it could hurt her to try it for a couple of weeks."

"Of course not. Now, let's get you cleaned up and get out of here. The fair won't wait forever."

Kagome, Noriko and Sango finally arrived at the fair in the middle of the afternoon. Kirara landed on the road outside of town and they all walked to the large pasture on the outskirts that had been turned over to the merchants for the fair.

They found rows of awnings shading mats that were laid out with the merchant's wares. Crowds from all the surrounding villages strolled the aisles and haggled with the traders. Children and dogs darted around and between shoppers legs, horses nickered and stamped in a nearby paddock.

Kagome looked at the teeming crowds while Sango asked a local where the herb sellers were stationed.

"Wow, it's gotten big. How are we going to find InuYasha in all this?"

Sango laughed. "I expect he'll find us. We'd better hurry if we want to get our stuff before we have kids hanging off us again." She led the way through the maze of stalls.

They worked their way through the apothecaries, restocking their stores, asking questions and examining exotic wares they seldom saw. Kagome let Sango handle the haggling. Sango was a much sharper dealer than Kagome, who had grown up in a world of set prices.

"What's next?" Sango asked as Kagome went over her list after their latest purchase.

"We're done."

"Already?"

"Yeah."

"Wow, this is easier without a horde of kids around."

"Really. So, what shall we do next?"

Sango thought a moment, then said, "Let's visit the cloth merchants. I need to make some more clothes soon."

"Good idea. I swear, I blinked and Tsuchiya grew three inches."

"He's going to be tall when he's grown," Sango remarked.

"You may be right. It's a job to keep him fed and clothed."

They made their way through the cloth stalls, gravitating toward the sturdy homespuns that could withstand farm work and active children, discussing the relative merits of what was offered.

"There you are!" InuYasha cried. "You sure took your time."

"Mama! Mama! Look what I can do!" Tsuchiya crowed.

Kagome turned to see Tsuchiya crouch down for a jump as InuYasha grimly snatched his collar to hold him down.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I got off to a really late start, but I'm almost done. It looks like you did fine. The fair is still standing and nothing's caught fire."

"That's not funny," InuYasha growled. "It was a nearer thing than you think."

Looking at him closer, Kagome saw several dark smudges on his face and sleeves, a fading bruise over his left eye and rather more debris in his hair than usual.

"What happened?"

"I took the kids to watch the acrobats, like you said. Tsuchiya found it ... inspiring."

Kagome winced. The next few days were going to be interesting.

Kagome was paying for her purchase and Sango was having her fabric measured out when a ruckus started in the next aisle over among some food vendors.

"Hey! Stop that thieving dog!" a man cried. Everyone in earshot turned as a scruffy, half-grown dog, possibly brown under all the dirt, bounded through a potter's stall, dodged around several people's legs and ran gaily up the cloth merchants' aisle, tail high, with a spitted fish in its mouth. It stopped near Kagome to eat its prize.

The fair guard patrolling this quadrant marched up and lunged for the dog's collar; the dog dropped the half-eaten fish and dodged behind InuYasha, cringing up at him contritely.

He blinked and looked down at it, frowning slightly.

"Here, now, is this your dog?" the guard demanded.

"No, we've never seen it before," Kagome replied.

"Really. It seems to know you pretty well," the guard retorted as the dog jumped up to lick InuYasha's face enthusiastically, its tail wagging furiously. It bounced around him a couple of times, then dropped back down to quickly sniff over Kagome and the children, then returned to sit down beside InuYasha, leaning against his leg and gazing up at him in adoration. "If you don't want any trouble, you'd best come pay Hiro-san for his fish and put a leash on your animal."

Kagome glanced at InuYasha in confusion. He was looking down at the dog, thoroughly exasperated. "Great. Just fucking wonderful."

The dog gave him a big toothy dog-grin.

InuYasha snatched the dog by its collar and said, "All right, let's go pay for the damned fish."

Kagome trailed after him with the children and overheard him mutter to the dog, "Took your time showing up, didn't you? I was beginning to think your father had changed his mind."

Was this the young dog-demon from the Forest Dogs they were supposed to foster? Kagome's stomach sank at the thought.

The fish vendor was still righteously annoyed, and he launched into a bitter tirade about people who couldn't be bothered to restrain their animals. This was too much for InuYasha's already outraged sense of justice, and he launched himself into the fight, yelling that he'd not even seen the dog until it wrapped itself around his legs. Kagome jumped in with money for the fish, saying, "We left her tied up at home. She must have slipped her leash and followed us. Please accept our apologies." Hooking InuYasha's elbow, she dragged him away from the scene.

Sango caught up with them, having completed her purchase, and asked Kagome, "What's going on? You don't have a dog. At least, not an ordinary one."

"This dog isn't ordinary, either." Kagome explained. "The Lord of the Forest Dogs told Inuyasha he would give him one of his daughters as a guarantee of his good will. It appears our guest has just arrived."

"Oh!" Sango looked at the scruffy dog closer. "That's a princess?"

The dog saw Kirara perched in Sango's basket and jumped at her with a loud "Woof!" Kirara jumped out of the basket and transformed to her full size, baring her very impressive fangs at the dog, who pulled up short with a startled "yip!" and hid behind InuYasha again.

The guard came back and threatened to escort them out of the fair if they didn't get a better grip on their animals.

InuYasha glared down at the pup and said, "I think I'm starting to see why your father chose you. Do you drive him as crazy as you're making me?"

The pup gave him another big toothy dog-grin.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," InuYasha grumbled.

The shopping was done, anyway, so after a bit of bother about who was carrying whom over the mountain in which order, everyone finally made it successfully home. As Kagome put away her purchases, she asked InuYasha to refresh her on the details about their guest. He described the meeting where Karimaru had said he would send her, mentioned the attributes of the collar and said her name was 'Kourogi'.

" Kourogi, eh?" She was certainly bouncy enough to be a cricket. Kagome looked over her new charge critically, then said, "Well, Kourogi, if you're going to be living here, the first order of business is a bath."

Kourogi started with surprise and looked at Kagome with horror. Kagome collected shampoo, towels and a sturdy brush, then dragged Kourogi, literally, to the hot spring for a vigorous scrub. After a lot of splashing, howling and yelling, they returned, Kagome soaked and bedraggled and Kourogi now a gleaming young dog with a rich brown and black brindled coat and a sulky expression.

"I take it someone doesn't care for baths," InuYasha remarked as Kourogi slunk into a corner to mope.

"No, she doesn't, but isn't she handsome now?" Kagome replied.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The next few days were indeed "interesting". Tsuchiya's acrobatic exploits resulted in several broken pickle crocks, roof damage, knocked-over fences and broken trellises, a demolished chicken coop complete with scattered, panic-stricken chickens and, finally, a broken leg which put him out of commission for about a week.

Meanwhile, Kourogi explored her new world with gusto, finding the dung heap behind the stables, the offal pile by the fish ponds, the dregs pit at Aiko-san's brewery, the mordant vats kept by the dyers shop, and just about every other smelly place in the village. Every time she came back from her adventures with caked and richly aromatic fur, Kagome dragged her back up to the hot spring for another vigorous scrubbing.

All of this activity left Kagome with little time to indulge Noriko's eating eccentricities. Her tolerance for sitting for hours doing nothing while Noriko played at eating reached its limit and she decided Noriko could just learn to eat like the rest of them. Twenty minutes had always been more than enough time for her older children to nurse their fill, so she decided Noriko could do the same, then she would have to wait until she could nurse again. Noriko flatly refused to play along and she let everyone know what she felt about it by treating them to ear-piercingly shrill screams of purest indignation. When her down time was over and Kagome picked her up, she vented her feelings by chomping down hard enough to draw blood. Kagome flicked her cheek sharply to remind her that wasn't nice. Noriko let out another piercing shriek, clawed her mother's face and pulled her hair, then found herself unceremoniously plopped into bed to cool off. The volume and pitch of her shrieks became stratospheric.

Kagome collected her after she had calmed down and tried to poke some solid food into her, but Noriko was still mightily vexed and she thrashed her head from side to side, jaws clenched, rather than accept the food. Kagome swore grimly under her breath as she chased Noriko around with the chopsticks, until Noriko knocked them sharply, sending the food flying.

"All right, young lady, let's see how you feel in half an hour." Kagome wiped Noriko's face and released her to sulk underfoot while she pickled vegetables.

Noriko clung to her leg, tugging her hakama and begging to nurse. Kagome clenched her jaw and held the course, offering her tidbits of what she was preparing from time to time, which Noriko threw across the room.

When she was finally allowed to nurse again, she pulled a few hard rough sucks, then slowed down to her usual lackadaisical pace. All the same, her temper improved tremendously a few minutes later. Unfortunately, her interest in nursing did not hold for long and soon she was more interested in watching Tsuchiya work his top that she was in eating. Kagome gave her the twenty minutes to get on with it, then put her back down. Noriko was surprised to find herself back on the floor and was very displeased that Kagome would not let her up again. Soon she was screaming again.

At dinner, Kagome let her nurse again and put a plate of tidbits in front of her. Her temper improved and she nibbled on a few of the offerings, but as dinner tailed off, most of the food was still on the plate. Kagome let Noriko keep her food while she cleared the rest of the table and started washing dishes, since it looked like she was actually eating when everyone else had left, then she caught Tsuchiya stealing her food. When she scolded Tsuchiya for taking Noriko's food, he yelped back that she wasn't eating it, so why couldn't he?

Three miserable days later, Kagome was beginning to realize just what a steely-spined little character her younger daughter was. Anyone else would have knuckled under by now, but Noriko maintained her campaign to put things back the way they were with unabated fierceness.

After putting the children to bed, she and InuYasha went up to the hot spring to decompress from the day's turmoil. After scrubbing down thoroughly and dumping buckets of rinse water over each other, they slid into the spring's main pool and settled onto a ledge against the back of the pool.

"Ahhhhh..." Kagome sat for a few minutes breathing in the steam and letting her muscles unclench. "I think my ears are still ringing."

"I know mine are," InuYasha grumbled. "Are you sure this is worth it?"

"Is it really asking too much for Noriko to eat when the rest of us do? She's not a newborn and I really do have more to do than nurse her continuously."

InuYasha groaned. "You do have some point in mind for deciding it's not working, don't you?" he pleaded.

"Yeah. I can't take much more either."

A few days later, Kagome threw in the towel; preserving her sanity trumped all other considerations this time. The rest of the house breathed easier for about a day before the dreadful consequence of the experiment became clear. Kagome's milk supply faltered as she and Noriko fought and Noriko's desultory nursing habits were not enough to restore it. In a very short time, Kagome dried up completely to the horror of them both.

Feeding Noriko now became an exercise in grim determination. Kagome was not at all sure anything was making it down her throat. Food was spat out, thrown, and smeared into clothes, hair and cushions, juices was poured over her head, knocked across the room and dribbled down her front, and all of this was accompanied by Noriko's now trademark piercing screams of outrage.

About a week into this ordeal, InuYasha had one of his inexplicable mood swings. He now found it intolerable to be more than twenty feet from Kagome and he bristled any time a male over the age of ten approached her. This, of course, was the cue for a wave of work injuries. Hideo fell off the roof of the granary during repairs and got a concussion, Masao's ladder collapsed while he was picking cherries in his orchard and he broke his leg in two places on impact, Yozo was trampled by his ox when a barking dog spooked it, (Kourogi was questioned about this later that evening) and Saito sliced his hand open while gutting fish.

InuYasha's presence was a decidedly mixed blessing as Kagome tended the men's injuries. She was grateful for his help in carrying Hideo into his house and in setting Masao's leg, but his condescending comments on human frailty could hardly be called good bedside manners. He bristled up badly as she jollied Saito along while she stitched his hand closed. Exasperated, she snapped, "Sit!" sharply and threw him out of the house until she was done.

"What is the matter with you?" she snapped as she stepped out of Saito's house and found InuYasha sitting by the door, glowering.

"I don't like the way you were talking to him," InuYasha snapped back.

"I was just keeping his mind off his hand. It's not exactly fun to get it scrubbed clean and stitched up."

InuYasha growled under his breath and looked sullenly away.

"You can't seriously think I was flirting with him," Kagome asked incredulously.

"I know what I heard."

"Saito-san is very happily married to Ruri-san and and you know it," Kagome scolded. "Now stop this foolishness and let me do my work."

"Hmph!"

"InuYasha!"

He glared at her again, but didn't say any more.

The next morning, Masao's wife, Emi, appeared on the porch and asked to speak to Kagome.

"Kagome-sama, please come. Masao-kun came down with a fever last night."

"How does his leg look?" Kagome asked.

"It's still swollen and warm to the touch," Emi replied anxiously.

"I'll come right over." Kagome turned back into the house to collect her medical supplies.

Noriko clung to her leg as she packed the kit, whining for food. Kagome picked her up and put her in InuYasha's arms as he came out of the bedroom, saying, "See if you can get anything into her. I have to go."

"Go where?" he asked, looking displeased.

"Masao-san has come down with a fever. I have to make sure his leg isn't getting infected."

"Now it's infected?! Shouldn't it be about healed by now? I have no idea how you people manage to stay alive at all. If I..."

Kagome slapped a hand over his rant and said grimly, "That's enough. Humans don't have any youki to boost their life force, so yes, we are more vulnerable. I'm tired of hearing about it." She strode out the door with her kit and hastened to Masao's house.

She was relieved to find that Masao had the same symptoms as his small daughter, but she checked him over carefully anyway, despite hearing some commotion outside that sounded like InuYasha and Noriko were involved. The leg was still swollen and deeply bruised, but, in truth, the swelling was starting to subside. The ailment was just the summer cold that was making the rounds, so as long as Masao could sit up and keep his lungs clear, he should be fine.

Promising she would check in again tomorrow morning, Kagome stepped out of the door to find InuYasha sitting on the porch with Noriko on his lap.

"Mama!" Noriko chirped cheerfully while Kagome stared at her in horror. The girl looked like she was awash in blood as she happily munched on something dark red and pulpy.

Fearing the worst, Kagome asked, "What did you feed that child?"

"What?" InuYasha said, taking umbrage at her implied criticism. "Emi gave us some cherries!"

"Cherries?!" Now that Kagome looked closer, the color was more purple-red and brown-red.

"Yeah. What did you think?"

"Um... Fresh-killed liver or something. It looked like blood." Kagome replied, feeling foolish.

"Psht!" he snorted, then thought a moment. "Actually, there might be a little blood there too. She chomped me pretty hard when I pried her mouth open to cram in the first cherry."

"You pried her mouth open?" Kagome repeated.

"And held it closed until she swallowed. I dunno about you, but I'm pretty tired of this bullshit of hers."

Kagome wasn't sure she approved of the method, but there was no doubt it was effective. "Well."

"Whatever works," InuYasha shrugged.

Kagome smiled to herself as a thought struck her. InuYasha had come a long way since that day he panicked when she told him she was pregnant the first time.

InuYasha caught her smile. "What?" he demanded.

Oh, nothing, really. I'm just thinking how much you've changed."

Later that evening, when all the youngsters had been settled into bed, Kagome joined InuYasha on the porch to enjoy the mild summer night for a while. Even now, in the calm at the end of the day, she could sense his continued agitation.

"Hey, what's eating you?" she asked quietly. "You've been just wound for the last few days."

He didn't answer for a long moment, then said, "It's a nice night. You want to go for a walk?"

He always had such a hard time articulating his feelings. The night was pleasant, and maybe a long walk would draw him out.

"Sure," she replied. "Let me tell Shippo and Rin." Kagome went inside long enough to talk briefly to them and collect a light jacket.

He took her hand as they entered the forest and led her along the trail that climbed to the top of the hill. The crescent moon was just setting as they arrived. A few clouds drifted across the star-spangled sky, while below them, the forest mirrored the heavens as fireflies drifted through the trees, winking.

It was amazing how much one could see by mere starlight. Growing up in Tokyo, with all of its lights, Kagome had never known this. She could see InuYasha clearly, his hair gleaming silver beside her, his face and clothes a ghostly suggestion. He was intensely alert and alive, every sense reaching out to read the forest, his nose testing the breeze, his ears swiveling to each creak and sigh, his eyes scanning the trees and sky. His youkai side was very much awake now, dangerous and uncanny, free from the human shackles that normally tied it down.

"Do you miss it?" she asked. He turned feral eyes on her, looked at her quizzically.

She nodded to the forest, the sky.

"Being out here, I mean. The open skies, the forest, being beholden to nothing. You must feel caged sometimes, back at the village."

He snorted softly, said bitterly, "Not hardly. You have no idea what it was like, eating whatever I could scrounge up, birds, fish, grubs when it got bad, sleeping in tree branches so I didn't become something else's next meal, knowing I was the only one left who gave a damn what happened to me. What's there to miss?"

"Even so, it's so beautiful, with the stars and the fireflies sparkling all around."

"Yeah, I guess," he said, looking over the forest briefly, then turning to look intently at her, "At least when you're here."

His claws glimmered as he reached out his hand, his fangs flashed as his mouth drew near, but she only touched gentle hands and soft mobile lips. He pulled her close and nibbled along her jaw and down her neck, then whispered roughly, "Want you so much..." as he loosened her clothes.

He was on fire; all of the smoldering needs that had made him so edgy for the last week were ignited by her scent, her touch. The ancient call summoned them, male and female, youki and reiki, fire and water, a calling of those aspects of separation that yearned to join once more and touch the magical potential of that time before they became estranged.

Once their needs was quenched, they lay together watching the clouds swirl through the stars. Kagome felt like she was watching creation unfold before her; the clouds gleamed softly, formless, and the stars sparkled with countless possibilities behind them. On a night like this, anything could happen.

InuYasha sighed beside her and said, "I suppose we'd better get back. There's no telling what Tsuchiya or that damned pup could be up to right now."

Kagome grimaced sourly. He had that right; neither Tsuchiya nor Kourogi had any notion of what 'down time' meant. She sat up and looked once more at the trees and fireflies, the clouds and stars. If she couldn't stay, she could at least take some of the magic of the night back with her when she returned to her everyday world.

The serenity of the night remained, even as the activity of their household resumed once more. Noriko woke up in a foul mood; Kagome pinched her nose shut and shoveled a spoonful of custard into her mouth as she started to scream. Tsuchiya somersaulted into Toushi as she sat at the table eating her breakfast, sending both her and her food flying. InuYasha grabbed both of them by the collar as a fight erupted and threw them into opposite corners to cool off. Kourogi trotted in the door covered in feathers and chicken droppings; Kagome handed the now-agreeable Noriko off to Rin and grabbed Kourogi's collar before she could roll on the mats, then marched her up to the hot spring for her next bath.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three days later, InuYasha hugged her from behind as she stood slicing vegetables for a pickle. He nuzzled his way up her neck, then whispered in her ear, "So, my love, what shall we name our next son?"


	51. Chapter 51 Not Just Another Little Boy

Chapter 51 - Not Just Another Little Boy

"Mrowl!"

A cat? Kagome went to the door and looked out. Kirara stood on the porch, full sized, carrying Kourogi by the scruff of her neck. Kirara stepped into the house and deposited Kourogi by the fire pit with a low growl.

Kourogi scuttled to a far corner, tail between her legs, and huddled there, looking humiliated and guilty.

"Thank you, Kirara," Kagome said as she watched the pup slink by. "Has she been naughty again? I'll have a talk with her. Would you like a small snack before you leave? I have a smelt head."

Kirara looked interested, so Kagome cut the head off one of the fish she had marinating, wiped off the miso and handed it to the cat, now in her smaller form. Kirara trotted out the door purring, head and tails high.

Kagome sighed and turned to the pup huddled in the corner. It was a fairly open secret that Kourogi was not just a stray dog they had picked up at the fair, but there were limits to what anyone should be required to put up with, whether or not she was a guest.

Kagome knelt down beside the pup and said, "Kourogi, we have to talk. I don't think your parents would be pleased to learn that the daughter they fostered out to us has done nothing but get into trouble since she arrived."

Kourogi shifted uncomfortably.

"You're supposed to be an ordinary dog. If you can't behave better, I'm going to have to treat you like one, or people will start getting very suspicious. Do you know what humans do with a dog that can't stay out of trouble? They tie her to a leash in the yard. Do you want that?"

Kourogi turned appalled eyes her direction.

"I didn't think so. I do think you will have to stay by me for a while. You can go into the village when I go, as long as you stay close. That will give you a chance to observe and learn. People do like a dog with good manners."

Kourogi whined and laid her head on Kagome's lap, looking up at her with great, sad eyes. Kagome stroked her head and rubbed behind her ears. Kourogi cuddled closer, and leaned, trembling, against Kagome. Kagome could recognize a child needing comfort, no matter what its form. She hugged the dog, and said, "Poor Kourogi. Here you are, stuck in this strange place as just another animal. You can't talk and your family is so far away. It can't be easy."

Kourogi whined in agreement and stayed cuddled against Kagome. A few minutes later, she pulled back and looked up, still subdued, but willing to take instruction.

"Do we have a deal?" Kagome asked. "You just stay with me as I work?"

Kourogi nodded.

"That's my girl.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kourogi tried. Kagome had to give her that, but her innate exuberance kept bursting free, often at the most awkward moments.

After an expensive and embarrassing episode at Aiko-san's shop (The woman was a bodhisattva, Kagome was sure of it.), Kourogi huddled against Kagome, miserable and contrite.

"Eh, Kourogi, we need to find something for you to do. Some job where you can use all that energy usefully."

Kourogi looked at her despondently.

"I really think both you and Tsuchiya are big enough to work in the fields chasing away the vermin. It's getting close to harvest and the grain is ripe enough to draw in the birds, there are rabbits among the vegetables, that sort of thing. Would you like that?"

Kourogi looked interested. There are few things a puppy loves more than chasing everything in sight.

Kagome steeled herself for another round with InuYasha. She had been trying to talk him into letting Tsuchiya join the other young boys on vermin patrol for well over a month.

InuYasha, however, was going through a spell where he would scarcely let either Kagome or Tsuchiya out of his sight. It had started when Tsuchiya lost his first tooth. Tsuchiya and Toushi had been in another of their at-least-daily tussles when Tsuchiya came into the house howling that Toushi had knocked his tooth out. He was now six, and when Kagome inspected the tooth and the gap in his mouth, it was obvious that Toushi had only finished a very normal process.

"Eh, Tsu-chan, that tooth was coming out soon anyway. See, this one is loose, too." Kagome wobbled the missing tooth's mate. "You don't need to worry about it. Everyone loses teeth at your age."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. It just means you're growing up and you're ready for grown-up teeth now."

Kagome watched Tsuchiya run back outside; he passed his father in the doorway. Kagome looked up to share a smile with InuYasha, but instead of smiling, he was as pale as a ghost and looked heart-stricken.

Confused, she asked, "InuYasha? What...?" but he was gone. Several hours later, he returned to perch up in his tree, staring far out into space, deaf and blind to everything around him.

"_You'll have a new tooth in no time, you just wait and see. My little boy is growing up, becoming a man, and he's getting his grown-up teeth."_

It was so vivid now, that long-forgotten memory of his mother explaining about loose teeth. She was wearing a pastel rainbow of fine silk kimonos covered by an indigo brocade overcoat. Her hair was softly pulled back and bound at the base of her neck. The scent of jasmine hung about her, jasmine and sandalwood and over-wrought nerves.

That man was coming for the afternoon, courting Mother. InuYasha didn't like him, but his opinion didn't matter. Mother's family told her she had to take what she could get. He was rich and had connections. Perhaps he could restore the family fortunes. InuYasha overheard that while he played, unnoticed, behind a screen. He didn't understand it then; now it filled him with impotent rage and aching sorrow.

Mother told him he was her little man. He tried so hard to be a man, tried so hard to take care of her, but...

Well, he was a man now. This time, he would make sure nothing happened to the people precious to him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"InuYasha, all the boys start helping in the fields at this age. He's big, and strong for his age and it would be a wonderful way for him to burn off all that energy. It's time he started contributing his share to the village."

"Kagome, no, he'll be completely exposed. Anything could happen to him."

"Exposed to what? The people he's grown up with all his life?" Kagome asked.

InuYasha didn't answer, but that didn't mean she had won. The obstinate set to his jaw suggested nothing she had said so far had made the least impression on him. Kagome still had no idea what had him so wound up; he refused to talk about it. Kagome pulled her trump card.

"Suppose we send Kourogi out with him. It would keep her out of trouble and they can take care of each other."

"Kourogi! She's scarcely responsible."

"She's just another case of too much energy in one package. Chasing rabbits and flushing birds is a wonderful job for a pup like her."

InuYasha grumbled softly under his breath, not happy, but not rejecting the idea outright. It was a testament to just how often Kourogi was in disgrace that he was even considering it. Finally, he said, "Let me think about it." It was much more than Kagome had been able to get from him before, so she agreed and let the subject rest.

InuYasha spent the better part of the next two days up in a tree, staring off into space. Kagome let him chew on it undisturbed; pushing now would only get his resistance fired up.

When he came down, the first thing he did was seek out Kourogi. He talked to her privately for a long time, then announced that Tsuchiya and Kourogi could work in the fields on a trial basis. If anything went wrong, both of them would lose the privilege and have to remain at home.

Tsuchiya was ecstatic. The next morning, he and Kourogi impatiently endured their final instructions to stick together or else, then ran down the hill to join the other boys who patrolled the fields.

"Well, well, look who's not peeping out from behind Mummy's hakama any more. It's Baby Tsuchiya!" sneered Yozo, a burly boy of about thirteen who was known around the village as the local bully.

"I'm not a baby!" Tsuchiya protested, flushing.

"We'll decide that," Yozo replied, giving Tsuchiya a hard shove that sent him sprawling.

Kourogi pushed her way between Tsuchiya and Yozo, bristled up and growling.

"Oh, great," Sagoro grumbled. "He's got that dog along. If she ruins anything..."

"She won't," Tsuchiya replied, grabbing her collar. "She's here to chase rabbits anyway."

"Well, I sure don't want her on my team," Nobu said. "You're going with them."

'Them' was the cowed team of leftover boys, awkward Hari, timid Naoki, and five-year-old Taku, who was along with his brother. All of them were on the young end of the spectrum, the oldest being barely eight years old.

Tsuchiya looked at them briefly, then looked back at Nobu. "OK, I guess, but what should we do?"

"You stay out of our way, that's what," Yozo replied, then turned to lead his cluster of boys out into the rice fields.

Sagoro led another group of boys toward the millet and Nobu headed toward the orchards with his group.

Tsuchiya watched them go, then turned to his new companions. "So, what do we do?"

"Nothing much, really," Hari said.

"The others will just hit us if we go after them," Naoki added.

But me and her won't be allowed to come back if we don't work," Tsuchiya said.

Hari shrugged. "Can't help that."

Tsuchiya frowned and pointed to the small buckwheat field at the far side of the vegetable patches. "Why don't we go there? There's no one else there."

Avoiding the other boys sounded like a great idea to the rest of them. They followed Tsuchiya to the buckwheat field, then watched Kourogi trot in and flush out the birds. They moved on to the neighboring vegetable fields, where they set Kourogi to chasing rabbits, raced each other along the dikes, poked grass stalks into ant nests, chased grasshoppers and flailed at each other with sticks, pretending to be famous samurai. The hilarity came to a sudden halt when they ran up against Yozo's group in the soybean fields.

Yozo snatched Taku and shoved him roughly to one of his cohorts, who pushed him back. They bandied the terrified boy back and forth, taunting him, until Tsuchiya, still carrying his samurai-stick, stepped in and shouted, "Stop that! He wasn't doing anything."

"I told you babies to stay away from us," Yozo snarled.

"We did!" Tsuchiya protested. "You went to the rice. We went here."

"Well, we're here now, so it's time for you to shove on." Yozo pushed Taku in front of him, then kicked him hard in the butt, sending him sprawling at the feet of the other boys.

While Yozo and his gang stood laughing, Tsuchiya launched himself at them, swinging his stick for all he was worth and yelling, "No! No! Stop being mean!" He was very strong for his size; the stick raised painful welts on their legs and backs. Nevertheless, the older boys didn't retreat until Kourogi bounded into the fray, snarling and snapping. They loudly vowed vengeance from a safe distance as Tsuchiya returned to check on Taku.

"Whoa, nobody ever did that before," Naoki said, looking at the bigger boys across the field.

"But they were being so mean to Taku," Tsuchiya said.

"They'll be back," Hari said. "My big brother has problems with them all the time."

"Eh," Tsuchiya shrugged. "We won. Maybe they'll leave us alone."

"I dunno," Naoki said. "It might make them meaner."

"I'm not scared," Tsuchiya said stoutly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Tsuchiya related his day's adventures at dinner, Kagome and InuYasha exchanged glances over the tale of the fight.

"So, you've already run up against those bullyboys," InuYasha said. "I've never been able to catch them at anything, though I've heard enough stories."

"Why do they do stuff like that?" Tsuchiya asked. "We weren't doing anything to them."

"It makes weak people like them feel strong to push around you little guys," Kagome replied. "They don't have any real strength in their hearts."

"Oh," Tsuchiya said, still looking perplexed.

"Never mind that," Kagome added. "You and your friends just stay out of their way. Why give them an excuse to pick on you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Tsuchiya replied. "We were having fun until they came."

"It should be easy," Kagome said. "I bet you and Kourogi can smell them coming."

"Yeah...," Tsuchiya said thoughtfully.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The more Tsuchiya thought about it, the less he liked it. Those boys were being bad and getting away it. It just wasn't right. His nascent sense of justice did not extend to considerations like who ought to be correcting these boys or how. It didn't matter one whit that Yozo was Kaou's son. He just knew that nothing was being done and he was going to do something about it.

For the next few days, he and Kourogi chased animals from the fields and played with his group of boys. They also monitored Yozo's gang, at first just to avoid them, but later, to spy. Hari and Naoki reluctantly followed, telling tales of Yozo's excesses as they went. It only made Tsuchiya more determined to strike a blow for justice.

Late one afternoon, Tsuchiya caught Yozo's scent drifting across the millet field. He put down the lizard he had just caught and sat up tall, ears pricked in Yozo's direction.

What's up?" Hari asked.

"Yozo's over there," Tsuchiya replied.

"Great," Naoki pouted. "He's got a whole village to bother. Why does he have to follow us around everywhere?"

"Come on. I want to see what he's doing." Tsuchiya said.

"What?"

"Well, we can't stop him from hurting people by hiding."

"Make him stop!" Naoki squeaked. "We can't make him stop. He'll kill us."

"We gotta. No one else will."

"What about the grownups?" Taku asked.

"I dunno. Papa says he's never been able to catch him doing anything."

"Well, yeah. Nobody does anything near your papa." Hari commented.

"See? They don't know. So it's got to be us."

"Just what do you think we can do?" Naoki asked.

That was a good question. Tsuchiya really did not have an answer, so he ignored it and moved quietly through the millet to the other side of the field. Naoki and Taku hung back, but Hari and Kourogi joined him as he lay, belly down, peering through the millet.

Kourogi woofed very softly. That translated roughly to "What's up?"

"I smelled Yozo over here and wanted to see what he was doing," Tsuchiya said.

"Grmmm?" Kourogi craned her neck to look more closely.

"You talk to that dog like she's a person," Hari whispered.

"She is, kind of," Tsuchiya whispered back. "At least, she knows what you're saying."

Now that Hari thought about it, Kourogi really did seem to understand what was going on better than most dogs. He looked her over warily. She still looked just like any other dog and she wasn't paying any attention to him at all. She was carefully sniffing the breeze that was drifting to them from Yozo and his gang who were crouched in a circle around something that was scrabbling around in the middle of their ring.

Tsuchiya frowned. "Can you tell what they've got?" he asked.

Hari squinted and tried to see through their legs. "It's ... little. Maybe gray."

"Wind's all wrong here. I'm going over there." Tsuchiya shimmied along the ground a few feet to catch the scents better. Kourogi followed, also belly low to the ground. Tsuchiya sniffed again from his new location. The air was heavy with the acrid smell of excited cruelty, pain and fear. The scent of the four boys nearly overwhelmed the scent of the unfortunate animal they were tormenting, but finally Tsuchiya got a whiff of it. "It's a kitten!" he hissed in outrage.

Tsuchiya liked cats. Despite the fact that most cats he saw fled from him on sight, he still loved their soft, luxuriant fur, their graceful, fluid bodies and their self-assured independence of spirit.

"We've got to save it," he told Kourogi.

"Hrrm?" Kourogi looked at him dubiously. She wasn't at all sure a cat was worth that sort of effort.

"Yes, we do," Tsuchiya argued. "No one deserves to be pulled apart alive."

"Whuff." Tsuchiya could tell by her keen look and tightened body that she conceded the point and was up for the fight. But what to do?

Hari had by now worked his way over to them.

"So what is it?" he asked.

"A kitten," Tsuchiya said grimly.

"Miyako-san's cat has a litter. I haven't seen it for a few days. You think...?"

"Yeah."

"That's horrible! We're supposed to get one of those kittens for our barn."

"We're going to rescue it." Tsuchiya declared.

"What?!"

"We're going to rescue it. Um, Kourogi and me, we'll chase them off. You grab the kitten and run."

"Uhh..." Hari looked at Tsuchiya, bug-eyed, but it was too late. Tsuchiya had already grabbed up a stout stick and charged, yelling, Kourogi on his heels.

The element of surprise carried the day. Tsuchiya and Kourogi burst out of the millet, flailing and snapping wildly at everything around them. Hari dashed out a moment later, scooped up the kitten and vanished into the field, sprinting for the relative safety of the other side. Tsuchiya and Kourogi took off running in the other direction when the older boys recovered from the surprise and started to fight back. A few minutes later, Tsuchiya was well over their heads in a persimmon tree and Kourogi had vanished into the forest. Yozo and his gang threw rocks at Tsuchiya; he threw back persimmons, still green and rock hard. The standoff held until Yozo saw InuYasha's bright red figure in the distance. Choosing to avoid adult involvement, Yozo withdrew, promising Tsuchiya he would catch it later.

Tsuchiya waited until their scent grew faint, then he slid out of the tree and tracked down his friends.

The kitten was not at all sure about being in the custody of four boys and a dog. It writhed in their arms, hissing, scratching and biting, as they carried it to Tsuchiya's house for Kagome's expert opinion.

"Mama, Yozo was hurting this kitty. Can you fix it?" Tsuchiya asked as he came in the door.

"Oh, my." Kagome snatched a towel from the shelves and spread it out on the counter. "Put it here, and let me see."

Tsuchiya put the kitten on the towel and the boys and dog all clustered around. The kitten hissed again and took up a fighting stance.

"Back up boys, you're scaring it," Kagome cautioned.

The boys backed up reluctantly.

"Oh, it's so little," Kagome said, putting her hand out to stroke it. The kitten growled and lunged awkwardly at her hand, claws bared. "And so scared. You boys run along. You still have your field jobs. Come back this evening, and you can see it then." She shooed them all out the door, then set to work soothing and examining the kitten.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So now we have a cat," InuYasha remarked as he peered into the basket where the kitten lay sleeping. There was no doubt their little house was getting crowded, what with three children (and a fourth on the way), Rin, Shippo, Kourogi, and now this cat. "How did it happen this time?"

"Tsu-chan rescued the poor little guy from Yozo and his gang. They were torturing him."

InuYasha ground his teeth in frustration. "Damn that hoodlum and his mother even more. You know, I can't do a thing unless I catch him in the act. The council has been quite clear that they handle the regulation of the village. Usually, that's fine by me; I mean, who wants to get dragged into every neighborhood quarrel? But that creep is as rotten as they come and I think that bitch, Kaou, encourages him."

Although it skirted violation of his agreement with the village council, InuYasha spent the next several days shadowing Yozo and his gang. Yozo complained to his mother that InuYasha was harassing him, and Kaou complained to the council that InuYasha was sticking his nose in affairs that were not his business. She played to the fears of several members of the council who still harbored reservations about contracting with those with youkai blood. The seven-odd years he had lived as one of them had sent these feelings underground, but they had not entirely dispelled them. InuYasha protested, loudly and sharply, that the only reason he had his nose in it was that it seemed to him the council didn't have the guts to do it themselves. After a heated exchange, the council told InuYasha to back off or there would be penalties.

InuYasha was still seething when he left the council meeting. Miroku and Saito got an earful before he stalked off to vent his temper in the forest.

"Whew! I haven't seen him that wound up in a long time," Miroku remarked as he watched InuYasha vanish into the bushes.

"Eh, well, his boy is tangled up in it," Saito replied. "There's a lot that goes on among the children that we hear very little of until it's too late. Someone is going to get hurt very soon and InuYasha-sama knows it. It's a pity there are so few that can stand up to Kaou."

"That woman has an unholy hold on this village. It's all rumors and vicious gossip; everyone knows that, and still they don't dare defy her. All it would take is some collective spine."

"Aye, but rallying that won't come easy."

It was, nevertheless, a worthwhile endeavor. Both Saito and Miroku were personable men. Saito asked casually among his sons and their friends what they knew of Tsuchiya's kitten incident and followed it up with questions about other goings on. Miroku prowled the village trading InuYasha stories, especially those where he provided indispensable services to the village. They compared notes a couple of days later, when Saito made a point of delivering Sango's fish order personally.

"What's going on?" Sango asked as she brought tea and rice balls to the table.

"Kaou's son Yozo has been tormenting small animals and the little boys out in the fields where we adults don't see. Tsuchiya is fighting back. The boy's been lucky so far, but it can't hold. It won't be long before there's a big blowup between InuYasha and Kaou," Miroku explained.

"Kaou," Sango said bitterly. "She certainly has more than her share of opinions about how the rest of us are raising our children. That attention would be better spent in her own home. What I wouldn't give to knock her off her pedestal."

"Talk to the women," Saito said. "The best thing we can do is build a wall of support behind InuYasha. Find out who's got the guts to take her on. See if anyone else has tales about what Yozo's been doing."

Sango looked thoughtful. "Shinju had a couple of stories a while ago that didn't make much sense at the time. Let me find out what the girls know."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After his run-in with the council, InuYasha leaned hard on Tsuchiya to extract a promise that he would stay well away from Yozo. Tsuchiya wasn't happy about it; as far as he could tell, he was still the only person trying to do something to stop Yozo's crimes, but Papa had a very sharp eye on him and when he caught Tsuchiya nosing around near Yozo's field one day, he threatened to send him home permanently.

It was much too much fun being out in the fields with Kourogi and the boys, so Tsuchiya gave up his campaign for the time being. He and his friends spent their time alternately chasing vermin from the vegetable fields and poking around in the fringes of the forest. This afternoon, the boys enjoyed watching as Kourogi efficiently flushed all the rabbits from the turnip field, then turned to join them again, tail waving gaily and tongue lolling.

"So what do we do now?" Tsuchiya asked. "We've finished the turnips, the soybeans, the carrots, the daikon and the persimmon orchard."

"I dunno," Hari said. "Do it again?"

"My brother Nodi's been showing me how to use a sling," Naoki offered. "Let's go to the buckwheat field and get Kourogi to scare the birds then see if we can hit them."

"Cool!"

It wasn't nearly as bloody an activity as one might have supposed. The birds burst out of the field when they were least expected and the boys had only the sketchiest notion of how to use a sling. The rocks sailed wildly in all directions long seconds after the birds were safely away, then the sling changed hands for the next boy's attempt. Each round ended with an excited analysis of what went wrong and eager suggestions for what would fix it.

"You gotta let go sooner," Hari opined after Taku's rock went sailing high and far to the left of target.

"Yeah, and swing it flatter," Tsuchiya added, "That went way too far up in the air."

"My turn," Naoki said, leaning over to get a rock from their small pile. He slid the rock into the sling and swung it around a couple of times to settle it into the cradle and feel its heft.

"OK, Kourogi, I'm ready," he shouted.

They could hear Kourogi rustling around through the buckwheat, then a pheasant launched itself into the air with loud claps of its wings.

"Aaaaa!" Naoki swung wildly and let go way too soon. His rock rocketed into the bushes at the far right of the field.

Someone in the bushes roared, then Yozo and his fellow bullies Ichiro, Saburo and Kingo stood up to glare at them, Yozo rubbing his right buttock.

"Oh no!" Naoki gasped. "When did he get here?"

"I don't know!" Tsuchiya cried. "I never smelled him. I still don't."

They had all been getting complacent, depending on Tsuchiya's preternaturally sharp senses to alert them to trouble. Now, they froze in a panic as Yozo and his gang converged on them and pinned their arms behind them.

"What's this?" Yozo said, snatching the sling from Naoki's hand. "You got a sling? It's mine now."

"But..."

"Shut up! I..."

Kourogi burst out of the buckwheat and grabbed Ichiro's leg.

"Shit!" Ichiro swung Hari around and tried to use him to knock Kourogi loose. Yozo aimed a vicious kick at her belly that knocked her loose. Saburo and Kingo took over the attack, continuing to kick her while she was down and gasping.

This galvanized Tsuchiya into action. He wrestled free, pulled his human friends loose and shoved them in the direction of the village square, yelling, "Run! RUN! Get help!"

They hesitated momentarily, then bolted toward town for help, leaving Tsuchiya alone with Yozo and his gang. He stood over Kourogi to defend her while she caught her breath, but Saburo caught him from behind and twisted his arms tight behind him.

"So," Yozo said, his eyes shining with vicious anticipation, "I told you I'd get you. Let's see how long demon-spawn lasts."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

InuYasha stopped dead in his tracks and sniffed again. Tsuchiya's blood and the musky-acrid scent of cruel excitement wafted in the air. Yozo was there, and his bullyboys Ichiro, Saburo and Kingo. Traces of their blood also tainted the air.

_Mother's fear and his blood and that sickening scent of cruel excitement. He was six again and there was no one to help him defend Mother against that evil man. It didn't stop him from trying; he was her little man, all she had._

That was the day he learned to use his claws; the day he truly learned he was not just another little boy.

Today, he vaulted into the trees and sprinted hard across the treetops, his human nature fading with each stride and the youkai rising ascendant.

A snarling red figure with glowing eyes dropped into the cluster of boys. A moment later they were crashing into the buckwheat, then, as they scrambled to flee, a hunting howl rang behind them. A glance back made them scramble harder; talons and fangs bared, InuYasha bounded toward them, shredding their backs as they ran, wailing.

"Papa?" A weak, quavering voice penetrated the swirl of youki clouding InuYasha's mind and pulled him back from the hunt. He pulled up short as his head cleared and returned to his son. The damage was appalling and the need immediate. He gathered the boy and the dog and sprinted with them to his house and Kagome.

Kagome was now the village's primary healer for injuries. She still didn't have Kaede's depth of knowledge in herbal concoctions, but her time spent caring for the injuries sustained by her friends in the hunt for Naraku had been supplemented by a wealth of experience caring for farming injuries. She was an expert with cuts, broken bones and dislocations, but internal injuries remained tricky; there were limits to what she could do with medieval technology.

Kourogi passed triage; her injuries would heal by themselves with time and rest. Tsuchiya was not so lucky.

"Broken arm, cuts and bruises, bloody nose, he bit his tongue at some point," Kagome murmured as she checked him over. "I don't like his color and he's sweating too much. Probably shock." She opened his shirt and examined his torso, then started probing his belly carefully. Tsuchiya writhed and cried out as she poked under his ribs on his left side. "This isn't good. Spleens can really bleed."

"He should start mending really soon," InuYasha said.

"He should," Kagome replied, "but look, he's still got all these scratches and they're not closing. By this time, they're usually gone."

"Shit! What day is it?" InuYasha went outside to check the sky. A fat gibbous moon had recently risen in the afternoon sky. He returned to the house and said, "Bad news. He goes human at sunset."

"So he's not going to start mending. Not until sunset tomorrow. He may not make it that long."

"What can you do?"

"Not much. I don't have the tools for internal injuries; that takes surgery."

InuYasha looked out the door again at the perilous moon, his thoughts flailing wildly in panic. There was a solution, he knew it, if he could just work his way past the gut-wrenching terror that was paralyzing his mind. _Taking Noriko to see the doctor... That night the horses were stolen..._ They chose to go through the well on those days because...

"We have to take Tsuchiya through the well," InuYasha said.

"But we shouldn't move him," Kagome objected. "It will make the injuries worse."

"The moon phase is different on the other side. It's the best chance he has."

"Oh! Oh, that's right!"

"I'm leaving now. Get settled what you have to here and meet me on the other side." InuYasha carefully scooped Tsuchiya up and slipped out the door.

Kagome did what she could to settle Kourogi comfortably, then Shippo shoved Kagome's travel kit at her and said, "Get going. Rin and I will take care of the rest."

Kagome collected Toushi and Noriko and started her trek to the well.

Tsuchiya was awake and coherent when she arrived. The change of venue had worked its magic; The scratches were fading rapidly, the bloody nose healed, his tongue looked much better. She checked his arm to make sure it was straight, then pressed on his abdomen again. He winced, but he was obviously mending; his color was better and he seemed to be otherwise resting comfortably.

"Mama?" he asked as she checked him over. "Am I just an animal? Yozo said I'm just a jumped-up animal, and, and ... I, I should be on a leash in the yard, and ..."

"No, you are not an animal," Kagome said firmly. "You are a person. Animals don't ask questions like that."

"Yozo's the one who should be on a leash," InuYasha growled. "I'm not letting this one go by without some action. The council will have to listen to me now."

"You rest now, Tsu-chan," Kagome said, closing the curtains and turning out the light. "We'll look at you again in about an hour."

Once they were out of the room, Kagome leaned against the wall, face in her hands, and started to cry.

"How could they do that to him? He's just a little boy."

InuYasha took her arm and guided her downstairs.

"No," he said grimly, "he's not just a little boy. He'll never be a just a little boy, just like I never was. The world won't allow it."

"That's so wrong!" Kagome said vehemently. She sat down at the kitchen table with the rest of her family, her face once more buried in her hands. Someone shoved a cup of tea to her, which sat, for the moment unmarked, between her elbows.

"Do you know what I was to the man my mother married after my old man died? 'That thing'."

Kagome flinched and everyone else at the table stared in shock at InuYasha, who stood leaning in the doorway.

"So, why did she marry him?" Sota asked.

"She wasn't given much choice in the matter. We were a broken clan and nearly starving. Mother was their ticket back to prosperity. I was in the way."

"You've never told me about this," Kagome said softly.

InuYasha snorted softly. "I pretty much forgot. It was a really long time ago and I was so busy just staying alive afterward that I didn't have time to think about it. It's not exactly like I wanted to remember it, either. But you sounded just like her, that day Tsuchiya lost his tooth. It brought it all back."

"What happened?" Sota asked.

"It was pretty bad. Mother refused to leave me with her relatives; she didn't trust them that far, so I was stuck in the same house with him. I hated him; he enjoyed being cruel and I could smell his excitement when he 'disciplined' me.

"Mother tried to protect me, but as far as I was concerned, she was the one who needed protected. So I did. I yelled at him, pushed myself between them, made sure I was the one who took his anger. It just gave him more excuses to beat me and more excuses to bully Mother. I can see that now, but then I just knew he was mean and I didn't want him anywhere near my mother."

"Oh, Gods." Kagome knew InuYasha well enough to know what came next. He was intensely protective and he never backed down. The situation must have escalated out of control. "You wound up pushing him over the edge."

"I wish," InuYasha said grimly. "Actually, it was Mother who cracked. She never really did understand how much damage I could take, and finally she couldn't take it any longer. She got between us and drew a knife on him, but she had no idea how to really use it. He didn't even blink, just cut her down, then told me it was my fault."

Everyone gasped, shock rippled in waves around the room.

"That was the first time I channelled the power through my claws, the first time I even knew I could do such a thing. I made him pay for what he did to her. They couldn't get rid of me fast enough after that. I was declared dead to the clan and dumped in the forest. After that, I was on my own."

"How old were you?" Sota asked.

"Not very much older than Tsuchiya is now."

Shock rippled around the room again. Kagome had known for years that InuYasha had been on his own from a very young age, but this was the first time she had heard the events leading up to it.

How could anyone treat a young child like that?" Mama asked, bewildered by the callous brutality that InuYasha had faced.

InuYasha shrugged. "I'm hanyou. It's not so unusual."

"And now you inflict this fate on Kagome and your own children," Grampa said. "You knew this could happen and still you..."

"Yes, I knew this could happen," InuYasha snarled. "I chose to hope that it would be different and that we could live peacefully. You'd think by now that I'd be over hope. It's never done anything but betray me."

The bitterness of those words struck even to Grampa's core. "I'm sorry, lad," he said softly. "I just don't like seeing my family hurting. I won't curse you for hoping."

InuYasha nodded soberly, accepting the apology.

Tsuchiya had improved considerably by the time Kagome and InuYasha checked on him again.

"Mama, I'm hungry," he announced as she examined him.

"Is that so? How does this feel?" She pushed over his spleen.

"Ow," he complained petulantly, then asked, "Can I have some noodles or something?"

"Miso broth for now," she declared.

"Awww..."

"Maybe next time."

Once outside the room again, she paused for a moment to pull herself back together.

InuYasha pulled her into a close embrace. "Kagome, I'm so sorry it turned out this way. Your grampa's right, you know. You could have had an ordinary life with ordinary people. Instead..."

"Hush, no, it's not like I didn't know going in," she said. "Yeah, sometimes it hurts, but it's... You're... You're the only one I've ever wanted, and I'll take whatever comes of it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the village, Shizuyo, member of the village council, stood on his front porch facing an agitated group headed by Kaou. "Now, Kaou-san, let's not be hasty," he said placatingly.

"Hasty! Hasty! Did you see what that unnatural beast did to my Yozo?" Kaou shrieked. "And not just Yozo; Ichiro and Saburo and Kingo too! It's not safe having him around! He's shown his true colors at last. I warned you before that he's dangerous! You can't ignore me this time. You can't! He must be banished immediately!"


	52. Chapter 52 Secrets

Chapter 52 - Secrets

Dawn saw a small figure fidgeting by the Bone Eater's Well, alternately peering into its depths impatiently and standing on tiptoe on its rim, looking anxiously toward the village.

"Hurry up! Come on!" Shippo muttered savagely under his breath. He started and nearly fell when the magic flux glowed in the well and InuYasha dropped to his landing, then launched himself smoothly to the rim.

"About time!" Shippo cried. "What took you so long?"

"I wasn't going to come back until I knew Tsuchiya was going to recover," InuYasha replied.

"Yeah, well, OK," Shippo said distractedly. "I guess that makes sense, but you've got big problems here. Kaou has about half the village ready to put your head on a pike for what you did to Yozo. We're having trouble keeping them contained."

InuYasha's ears snapped back flat onto his head. "Oh, she does, does she?" he snarled. "And what is she saying about what Yozo did to Tsuchiya?" He leaped off the well rim and started marching purposefully toward the village.

"Nothing so far, actually." Shippo scampered after him so they could keep talking. "Find Miroku when you go in," he added. "He'll know the latest temper of the village. Maybe he and Saito have had some success cooling things off, but I wouldn't count on it. A lot of people were rattled by the state of those boys' backs."

"Well, I wasn't exactly going to pat them on the head and tell them what good boys they were," InuYasha snorted. "They damned near killed Tsuchiya!"

"The cooler heads know you wouldn't have done that without a good reason, but they need to hear your side of the story. Kaou has had the only story in town since yesterday. You've got some catching up to do. Good luck. I'm going back to guarding the house."

InuYasha paused briefly in his march. "Guarding the house?"

"Yeah. Some of Yozo's buddies thought they'd try to torch the place last night, but I took care of them. It's amazing what you can do with some maple leaves and foxfire when you're pushed."

Rage, true rage, the sort that InuYasha had seldom really experienced, began to burble like a slow pool of magma in his gut. There was no way he would allow Kaou to hang this one on him. The council would listen to his tale or there would be consequences. He had sold his prodigious strength to the village in exchange for one small thing, a safe haven for his family, and they had failed him.

There must have been something very different about his mien. People fell back from him as he strode through the streets, heading toward the square. Even Hideo and Eiichi, who were generally on easy terms with him, kept their distance. He entered the square, halted by the well, then faced the crowd, calling out, "Assemble the council! I have charges to bring and I want satisfaction!"

While a few people scrambled through the village to collect the missing council members, a crowd gathered, muttering ominously. One voice rose through the crowd to shout back, "You have charges! What about Yozo and what you did to him?"

"Oh? And what about how Yozo nearly beat my son to death?" InuYasha retorted. "Did you hear that part of it?"

"Really! Can your sort die?" the heckler demanded.

"Little boys who are mostly human sure can," InuYasha snapped back.

The murmuring grew louder and more agitated as the villagers digested that. Vehement discussions broke out in several small groups as people traded opinions about who was justified and by how much. Most people remained sullenly hostile, but some were obviously troubled by InuYasha's statements and were beginning to question what they had heard earlier.

The missing members of the council began to arrive, followed by the rest of the villagers. It was obvious that Kaou had been working them during InuYasha's absence; most of their faces were grim and implacable as they gathered to confront InuYasha, Kaou watching from the side with bright, hard eyes. Shizuyo, the current chair of the council, declared formally, "The council summons InuYasha to answer the charge that he broke our covenant by willfully and viciously mauling Yozo, Ichiro, Saburo and Kingo, residents of this village who are under our protection. We shall convene the meeting in the tea house immediately."

"Great!" InuYasha retorted. "Just as soon as the council answers my charge that you recklessly disregarded my warnings that Yozo and his hoodlums were bullying little savages to the littler kids and that you broke our covenant by failing to provide a safe environment for my family. I had to rescue my son yesterday because you didn't tend to business!"

The square exploded into chaos; charges and countercharges flew through the air, people shouted out opinions about InuYasha's actions, Yozo's actions, speculations on how dangerous it was to continue associating with youkai, speculations on how dangerous it would be to banish InuYasha and reminders that losing InuYasha most likely meant losing Kagome as well. People clustered about the council members, jostling each other and petitioning for InuYasha's banishment or his pardon while InuYasha, himself, got embroiled in a snarling match with Ichiro and Kingo's fathers.

Scuffles broke out across the square and the council members got pushed this way and that in the press of the crowd. Women screamed and pushed their way through the crowd as the rising riot threatened to trample their crying children underfoot. Rocks flew through the air as tempers rose.

Just as the last chance to recover control of the situation seemed to slip away, a burst of foxfire exploded in the midst of the square with a deafening boom.

"Enough!" Kaede's voice said firmly across the sudden silence of the shell-shocked village square. "There are grievances enough to go around without destroying the village. This matter will be judged by the council and the rest of you will go home. It sounds to me like InuYasha has his own tale to tell, and I, for one, would like to hear it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Even so, you went too far," Shizuyo intoned solemnly after InuYasha had told his side of the story. "You have no right to lay a hand on any member of the village."

"Are you saying I have no right to defend my son from being attacked just cuz those little assholes are members of the village? Ichiro and Saburo had Tsuchiya's arms pinned behind his back and Yozo was kicking him in the gut for all he was worth. Count yourselves lucky I scratched them up instead of sending their heads rolling across the field."

Junichi frowned and scratched the back of his head, then said, "This isn't the story we were hearing last night. What I heard was that InuYasha went mad and attacked the boys without provocation, then disappeared into the forest. No one had any idea what had become of the rest of his household, and somehow," he glanced at Kaou, "it never got mentioned just what Yozo was doing at the time."

"Why am I not surprised?" InuYasha retorted, also glaring at Kaou.

"I'd not heard anything about your son," Kaou snapped.

"Yeah, it kinda figures that Yozo would 'forget' to mention that part."

"It probably wasn't worth mentioning," Kaou intoned righteously. "It is the duty of the older boys to correct the younger ones when they err."

"When did beating a boy to within an inch of his life become a reasonable 'correction'?"

"An inch of his life?" Kaou scoffed. "I expect we won't find a mark on him when we see him again."

InuYasha ground his teeth in frustration. It wasn't helping his case that those with youkai blood healed unnaturally quickly and cleanly. The bitch was right. There wouldn't be a mark on Tsuchiya by tomorrow.

"The fact that hanyou heal quickly does not mean we can't die. We would have lost Tsuchiya if I hadn't taken him to Kagome's world for healing, and I'm damned sure not going to bring him back before he's completely recovered."

"So, you expect us to just believe you," Kaou said in a way that insinuated that InuYasha's veracity was doubtful at best.

"I don't lie," InuYasha snarled.

That was hard to deny. InuYasha was honest to a fault and often brutally candid in his observations. The council shifted uncomfortably and exchanged unhappy glances. Most looked like they would prefer being swallowed up by the earth to sitting in judgment in this dispute.

Daisuke swallowed and said diffidently, "Now, you see, InuYasha-sama, we still have the matter of four youngsters mauled by your hand and ... "

"And I'm saying that if you had dealt with those boys when I warned you about them, I wouldn't have had to jump in."

Shizuyo added, "We really don't know the particulars of what led up to this. It could be that Tsuchiya did something to provoke..."

"Bullshit! You are not going to weasel your way out of it by blaming my son for ..."

Miroku raised his hand to get the floor and said, "Perhaps it would be edifying to ask the other boys who were present. Tsuchiya wasn't alone when this started. Taku, Hari, and Naoki were there too."

The boys were summoned and when they arrived a short time later, Hari and Naoki stood silent and afraid before the council, but Taku was willing to talk.

"It was a accident!" he insisted. "We didn't even know they was there! And... an' then, they was grabbing us and Kourogi came an' bit Ichiro's leg an' they kicked her down an' Tsuchiya got loose an' pulled us loose and tol' us to get help. So we ran an' he stayed for Kourogi an' when we got back they was gone an' Yozo was all clawed up. An' I'm glad! He's always mean an' he's always beatin' kids up."

It was a remarkably bold statement for a boy of five. Hari and Naoki nodded their agreement, although they were still reluctant to speak out.

Kaou contemplated Miroku grimly; he returned her look with fearless equanimity.

"He's lying," she declared. "The priest put him up to it."

"He is not," defiantly retorted Teizo, one of a cluster boys that was hanging by the door listening in. "They've been picking on me and my friends, too. We all got stories."

The rest of the boys nodded in agreement. InuYasha shot a fierce glance at the council, reminding them of his earlier warnings.

Kaou glared at the boys with savage calculation. Most quivered and faded away, but Teizo held his ground.

The council closed testimony shortly afterward and dismissed everyone present so they could deliberate privately. Hours passed. InuYasha and Kaou waited outside the building and glared at each other as they waited for the decision of the council. When the council members once again to met the petitioners, they looked unhappily resigned to a miserable fate.

Shizuyo cleared his throat uncomfortably and said, "The council rules in favor of InuYasha-sama in this matter. Kaou-san, it appears to the council that this unfortunate attack was not unprovoked. InuYasha-sama has complained to us in the past on several occasions about Yozo's conduct and we did nothing to correct it. You have our profoundest apology for not attending to this before these regrettable acts occurred. It shall not happen again."

Kaou stared at him for a long, silent moment. "I see. You're willing to sacrifice our children to retain this beast's services. I don't think much of your priorities. Don't think I'll forget this." She spat at their feet and stalked off.

"Well, that's over with, at least," InuYasha said, watching her disappear into an alley.

"Oh, no. It's not over," Junichi said ruefully. "It's just barely begun. Kaou-san is not pleased and we are all going to pay for it."

"You aren't backing down on me, are you?" InuYasha demanded.

"No, no. There was no way in good conscience that we could have chosen otherwise and we will stand by the decision. I'm just saying there will be repercussions."

"Pfft," InuYasha snorted, rolling his eyes. "What could that bitch really do? Everyone knows she's just a windbag."

"I expect you'll know soon enough, InuYasha-sama," Junichi replied.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

InuYasha was a man of action and since he had grown up in near isolation in the forest, he had little appreciation for the power of words. His solitary life had also not trained him to observe the subtle interplay of people in a community.

Kaou, on the other hand, worked entirely within the world of social interaction and carefully placed words. Outside of the glaring blind spot she had where her own household was concerned, there was very little indeed that she did not know about the intimate lives of the villagers. She watched people continuously, carefully saving up nuggets of information against the time she wanted something. The council may have decided in InuYasha's favor, but that did not mean the entire village agreed. Kaou had a fertile field of resentment to command as she began her campaign.

The village remained a seething cauldron of overwrought emotions; the villagers divided into two camps that fought intermittently in the streets and alleys. No one dared to attack InuYasha directly, so Kaou's supporters vented their feelings on InuYasha's supporters, assaulting their families and vandalizing their houses. InuYasha broke up several scuffles and endured taunts and curses from angry people hidden safely in the crowds. He, himself, was growing increasingly tense and testy when Kagome returned two days later to check in on to a handful of patients she was tending for farming injuries. Usually, she was a calming influence, but this time, her presence just escalated the situation. InuYasha's normal protective instincts, already heightened by he pregnancy, were now aroused to a fever pitch, and Kagome was hard pressed to keep his volatile temper contained in the face of the taunts and sullen glares that followed them everywhere.

Depending on how they stood in the dispute, the families of her patients either stiffly refused her entrance or cautiously allowed them in. Everyone watched InuYasha warily through the duration of each visit, looking like they expected him to explode without warning. InuYasha found that even more irritating than the taunts and scowled back at them, ears twitching.

"This is really getting stupid," InuYasha grumbled as they left the last house and headed into the shop district to visit Aiko's shop so Kagome could replenish her store of spirits for infusions.

"It might help a bit if you'd quit huffing and scowling," Kagome suggested.

"Hmph! You know, I was really tempted to say 'Boo!' to old man Sadako," InuYasha replied, rolling his eyes. "I bet they'd have had to peel him off the rafters."

Kagome stifled a giggle and said sternly, "That would not have helped at all."

"Did I do it?" InuYasha grumped. They had just reached Aiko's shop when a rock came whistling toward them from an alley. InuYasha paused and looked back toward the alley, thoroughly exasperated. "Looks like someone else has a bad case of stupid. Be back in a minute."

Kagome sighed and entered Aiko's shop and gave her her request.

"Eh, how's that boy of yours?" Aiko asked as she decanted the spirits into a bottle.

"Much better, " Kagome replied. "He should be safe to come back tomorrow."

"That's open to interpretation," Aiko remarked.

"Hm?" Kagome was still catching up with recent events.

"There's more than one person here who finds it offensive that Tsuchiya recovers so quickly while the other boys won't heal. Their wounds aren't closing up from what I hear. Kaou is still telling everyone who will listen that it's all a lie and Tsuchiya was never hurt. There's folks that believe that, that believe you're just covering up a fit of madness in InuYasha. There's a good number that say he's not stable and is a real danger."

"What else are they saying?" Kagome asked.

"There's a good deal of debating about the wisdom of having contracted him for the job of guarding the village, seeing what's just happened."

"They're not the only ones." InuYasha snorted, coming through the door. "How many times have I beaten off brigands, recovered stolen property, taken out youkai, dealt with that tax collector even? No one seems to want to remember that part. All I asked for was a safe place to keep my family. That sure worked out well."

"There are a lot of us that remember what you've done, InuYasha-sama, but right now, it's a hard thing trying to argue through the hysteria. The best thing you can do is keep a calm face until the storm passes. Then we'll see what we can do."

"Do you think we should just stay out for a while until the dust settles?" Kagome asked.

"No, I don't. People need to see you here, being calm and useful. They need to be reminded you provide needed services. But leave the talking to us."

A few days later, the village settled into an uneasy peace. InuYasha and Kagome were able to resume their duties unmolested and a few people even sought them out to apologize for their behavior. In light of this development, and because the Higurashis were approaching a meltdown from coping with the children, InuYasha and Kagome brought them home.

As Aiko predicted, Tsuchiya caused an initial stir. He was now robustly healthy while the members of the gang that had attacked him were all still in grave condition, with unnatural gashes across their backs whose deeply burned furrows refused to close, despite anything even Kaede's long experience could do. He was eager to see his friends, so Kagome escorted him down to the village to visit them, then she and InuYasha stayed discretely in the background while a cluster to the younger boys gathered around him to hear his tale. He didn't need to embellish it much to impress them all mightily. No matter what the adults thought, Tsuchiya was now a hero among the younger set.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The village's hard won tranquility did not last long. Soon, the square was buzzing with the revelation that Junichi, a long-time council member known for his honesty and reliability, had stolen rice from the village stockpiles. Junichi shut himself up in his study while he contemplated suicide over the crushing shame. His high-strung, fragile wife soon collapsed from the strain, and Junichiro, their oldest son, frantically summoned both Kaede and Kagome to his house for assistance.

Kaede went to the study to talk with Junichi while Kagome examined his wife.

Kagome emerged first and told Junichiro, "Her heart sounds fine and I'm not seeing any signs of a stroke. It looks like a nervous breakdown. I'll ask Rin to come over and sit with her for a couple of nights. Here are some soothing teas you can give her. I'll check in daily to see how things are going."

"Thank you Kagome-sama," Junichiro said, bowing to her. "This eases my heart greatly. Would you have some tea with me while we wait for Kaede-sama?"

"Of course, that sounds wonderful," Kagome replied.

Junichiro ushered her to the family table while his sister provided tea and some dainty rice balls filled with sweet bean paste.

Kagome turned her cup around in her hands after sipping from it, then said, "I don't understand this. Your father has always been scrupulously careful with the rice inventory and many people say he never takes his full share. I just can't imagine him stealing."

"Ah, Kagome-sama, but one time long ago, he did," Junichiro said mournfully. "Mother never knew about it, but about ten years ago, I got myself in an awful jam with a gambler. There was no way I could ever pay the debt. The gambler told me he would cancel the debt if I gave him my sister Michiko. Sweet Buddha, she was only twelve. I had to tell Father, and that's when he stole the rice; he did it to save us from slavery. He's been taking less than his share since then, to make up for what he stole. I could have sworn that we were the only two who ever knew."

"That's essentially what Junichi-san told me," Kaede reported, coming in to join them at the table. "He also said that Kaou met him early yesterday morning and insisted that he rethink his position on banishing InuYasha. She said he would regret it if he didn't. Junichi said he told her politely that if she had new evidence, she was certainly welcome to put it before the council, and they would discuss it. Evidently that wasn't good enough for her, because the story came out that afternoon."

"Oh, Gods, it's been ten years since that happened! I thought it was over and buried. Father's been doing atonement since that day. How is it not enough?"

"I believe it's been enough, and I told your father so," Kaede said. "I think I've talked him out of suicide, but we still need to keep reinforcing the idea that he has more than repaid that crime in his conscientious service to the village. With your permission, I would like to tell the rest of the story. People should know what would drive an honorable man to that extreme."

Junichiro swallowed hard. "I... I don't know. Please don't misunderstand, I can take it, but this would kill Mother. Can't it wait until she's more stable?"

"I think not. In any case, it should be over by the time she's about again. In the meantime, I would limit her visitors."

Even so, Junichi formally resigned from the council. Shizuyo once more brought up the InuYasha matter for consideration. During the discussion, Saito reported stories he had been told by several of the youngsters who had suffered Yozo's abuses. Miroku reminded them of the times InuYasha had saved the entire village from destruction. Once again, the council could not muster the resolve to banish InuYasha.

Few noted the early morning meeting between Kaou and Saito at the fish ponds, but everyone heard the scandalous rumor that flew through the streets that afternoon. It was being said that Saito had a child by his wife's niece, fathered during the time the girl had been lodging with them to help keep house while Ruri recovered from a difficult birth.

Every single woman in the village was outraged and most expressed it by refusing to have anything to do with Saito's fish.

Kagome was as shocked as everyone else. Saito and Ruri were one of the village's great love stories and she could scarcely imagine him capable of doing such a thing. All of that was shattered; now, neither Ruri nor the children would speak to Saito. Ruri was the center of Saito's world, and he could not imagine living without her, so a few days later, he tried to drown himself.

InuYasha found him and dragged him out of the river on his patrol that night, and carried his cold, limp form back to his house. As Kagome examined him, InuYasha remarked, "Don't you think there's something awfully suspicious about this? Saito tells the council what he's learned about Yozo and suddenly we're hearing this story about him and his niece. I'd sure like to hear what Saito has to say about it."

It took a long time to rouse him. Kagome wrapped him up in a quilt and tucked hot water bottles around him until his shivering abated and he became coherent. He then sat by the fire, still wrapped in the quilt, brooding silently. Kagome tried to give him some warm sake to restore his circulation while she brewed up stock for soup.

He pulled a face and pushed it back, saying, "No. I'll never touch that stuff again." Now that Kagome thought about it, she had never seen Saito drink, even when everyone around him was celebrating heartily.

"Of course. I just wanted to help you warm up. The soup will be ready soon."

While Kagome went into her pantry to fetch the miso and dried seaweed, then sliced a scallion into thin strips, InuYasha stepped forward to confront Saito.

"OK, we know what that bitch Kaou has been saying. I expect she left a lot out, like usual. Want to tell us about it?"

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried from the kitchen. "This isn't an interrogation!" She brought out a bowl of soup and handed it to Saito.

"No, it's all right," Saito replied. "At least you asked, which is more than I can say of anyone else. Even Ruri..." He sighed heavily, then said, "It was when Sumire was born. It didn't go well and it looked like we might lose Ruri. Her sister sent her oldest daughter to us to keep house while Ruri fought her way back to health. I was so scared, and I'm afraid I drank way too much. That whole period of my life is just a haze . Even now, I have a hard time remembering what was real and what was a drunken dream. Well... some things happened, things I'm not proud of. Ruri recovered and our niece went home. Soon afterward, we heard that her wedding had been jumped forward a few months. I attended alone since Ruri was still not up to traveling, and that's when she told me. I haven't touched liquor since." He shook his head and looked at them. "I thought it had been successfully buried. Fumi is safely married and the boy looks like her. For the life of me, I can't figure out how Kaou found out."

Kagome sighed. "Well, it's not a pretty story, but it's not as horrid as Kaou would have us believe. I think I'll visit Ruri tomorrow and see if I can patch things up for you."

"Thank you, Kagome-sama. I'd be grateful."

As the Saito scandal wound down, murmurs started to go around about Miroku's extramarital dalliances. Soon the village was buzzing excitedly as one by one, the women involved were revealed.

Fiercely independent, widowed Aiko was first. She struggled ferociously to maintain her normal unflappability, boldly giving no satisfaction to the gleefully curious, but Kagome saw the tears that sparkled in her eyes after she smiled another customer out the door then turned to face Kagome. They were now alone in the shop, so Aiko dropped the mask and looked at Kagome with haggard eyes.

"Well, she got me, that Kaou." She took a shuddering breath, then said, "I knew in my heart that she would, but it doesn't make it any easier. Still, I'd say my bit again and not regret it. We eat better and we sleep better since you two settled here."

Kagome nodded vaguely, then a very awkward silence arose between them. Kagome was still reeling from the shock of learning a woman she greatly respected was having an affair with her closest friend's husband.

"I expect you don't think much of me right now," Aiko said. "I don't blame you. There isn't any way to put a pretty face on it, is there?

"I like my situation, Kagome-sama. I like running my own affairs without having to answer to anyone else. A lot of women, they go to bed not knowing if their man is going to gamble their food away, or get drunk and beat them, or take up with a pretty new girl. I don't have any of those worries. But sometimes, I do get lonely for the touch of a man."

Sachiko, Rokuro's faded wisp of a wife, was next. Miroku rescued her from a savage beating and brought her up to Kagome for treatment. He didn't have much to say for himself; he just called Rokuro a closet brute and asked Kagome to shelter Sachiko for a time.

With a reeling head and a churning stomach, Kagome tried to straighten Sachiko's broken nose, put cold compresses on her bruises and settled her into a relatively quiet corner of the house.

"He made me feel special," Sachiko said in a whispered confession many hours later as Kagome changed her compresses. "To Rokuro, I'm stupid and useless, but Miroku made me feel like someone again. It made life with Rokuro more bearable."

Aya was next, and she was frankly using Miroku to get even with her philandering husband. Half the village heard her stridently declare during their ensuing fight that Miroku was a much better performer than he'd ever been.

As the list of women involved grew, it became harder and harder for Sango to maintain her dignity through the cloud of whispers that followed her everywhere. When she couldn't take it anymore, she escaped to Kagome's house for a good private cry on her shoulder.

Kagome shooed the children outdoors to give Sango breathing space, held her through the torrent of tears, then brewed some tea.

"Eh, Sango-chan, that must have been quite a blow, finding out that Miroku was ... playing around," she said as she set the tea out before them.

"Don't be naive, Kagome-chan," Sango said bitterly as she picked up her cup. "I knew. I've always known. They don't mean anything to him, it's just physical, but ... but it still hurts." She swallowed a sob, then added, "He ... he tries to be considerate, in his own perverted way. For instance, he tries to pick women who have reasons to be discrete, tries to keep it out of sight, and ... and on my part, I try to pretend I don't know."

"Oh, Sango-chan, you shouldn't have to live like that!" Kagome cried.

"Eh, we both know he's an alley cat. When I can't manage, he finds someone who can. Other than that, he'll do anything for me and the girls. I mean, nobody's perfect, and I ... he ... it ... it works. Most of the time anyway. But when it blows up like this, it's almost more than I can take."

"What will you do?"

Sango shook her head. "I don't know. Usually, that's when we leave town and start over, but I don't want to leave this time. I like having you and InuYasha nearby. You're as much family as I have now."

"It's going to be awfully hard to live here after this."

"It's going to be hard for more people than just us. We're tough, Kagome-chan. It'll take more than this to beat us."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What on earth happened to you?" Kagome asked as InuYasha walked through the door a couple of days later sporting a black eye and a healthy knot on the back of his head.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Just got stupid. I was breaking up a fight between Wataru and Miroku when I suddenly thought 'What am I doing here?'. I mean, I wouldn't be too happy if I found out Miroku was doing my wife either. Anyway, I didn't duck in time and Wataru got me in the eye and Miroku whacked me over the head with his staff."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Anyway, I've pretty much decided if Miroku was dumb enough to get himself into this fix, he can just deal with the consequences."

Kagome sighed and gave InuYasha a cool pad for his eye, then inspected the knot on his head. "You know, that's only partially true. I don't like his cheating either, but Kaou was the one who blew this open and she did it just because he's our friend and has supported us."

"I guess. Still, you know what, Kagome? This village is turning out just like any other village I've ever dealt with, and I'm getting pretty sick of it. There's nothing that says we have to stay here. The whole point of the contract was to have a safe place for you and the kids and it's not happening. If they're that hopped up about having us around, let's just shove on. Masahiro would probably be thrilled to have us in closer."

"No. We're not going anywhere," Kagome said firmly. "Too many people have suffered because they stood by us and I will not let all that pain go to waste. You told me yourself, 'You can't let the bastards win.' Kaou is a complete ogress and I refuse to let her push us around."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Kaou had exhausted her arsenal on the council without achieving her goal, she moved to taking revenge on every person who had thwarted her, no matter how small. Little Taku went missing from his field work one morning, so his friends went to his house to look for him. The boys found him crouched behind his family's tool shed, sobbing miserably. He had a great ugly bruise rising on his cheekbone that had swollen up across half of his face.

"Whoa! What happened to you?" Hari asked.

"M' my sister hit me," Taku sobbed.

The boys exchanged appalled looks. Most of them had older sisters that minded them part time and their sisters rarely did more than snarl at them or pinch their arms.

"Why?" Naoki asked.

"I... I got her into trouble with Mother and Father," Taku replied.

"What? How?"

"I... I just heard something," Taku said. " I heard Kaou-san say to Nari-san that she heard my sister tell Macho-san that her monthly was late. I didn't know what a monthly was, so I asked Mother. She asked me why I wanted to know, so I told her what I heard. She got really mad and went and told Father and he got really mad and they and my sister had this really big fight and later she found me and hit me for telling. I... I didn't know it was bad. An' I still don't know what a monthly is."

Neither did the rest of the boys. The closest thing in Tsuchiya's experience was his monthly day of humanity, and it was never late.

"Do, uh, do you guys turn into something once a month?" he asked.

They all looked at him sideways. "No-o-o-o."

He frowned, thinking. "Oh." Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember Mama changing into anything.

"Do you?" Naoki asked.

"Um, yeah. I turn human for a day once a month."

"I've never seen that!" Naoki exclaimed.

"Me, neither!" chorused the other boys.

"Yeah, well, Papa says I gotta stay home for that day 'for my own pertection'. It's so boring."

"Can we visit?" Hari asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Tsuchiya replied. That sounded much jollier than being stuck alone with his sisters.

The prospect of visiting Tsuchiya while he was human pulled even Taku out of his funk. The boys spent the rest of the day flushing birds from the ripening rice with Kourogi and catching up on the small events in their lives.

When Tsuchiya got home that evening, he asked Kagome, "Mama, what's a monthly?"

Kagome looked up sharply from the fish she was filleting and stared at him for a moment.

"Where did you hear that?" she demanded.

"Um, from Taku," he replied.

Kagome looked even more startled.

"And how did Taku hear this?"

Tsuchiya related Taku's story to his mother.

"Kaou said... in his earshot... So she got to him, too." The pettiness of this attack was almost beyond Kagome's comprehension. What kind of person took revenge on a little boy of five? Was there nothing she would stop at? Kagome stood lost in thought while she wondered what she could possibly do about it.

"Uh, Mama?"

Kagome blinked and returned to the present. "Eh?"

"So what's a monthly?" Tsuchiya asked again.

"Oh! It's a woman thing. Women bleed in a special way once a month."

"Oh." Tsuchiya thought about that for a moment. "An' if it's late?"

"That means the woman may have a baby coming, like your brother, here." Kagome smoothed a hand over her swelling belly.

"Oh." Tsuchiya thought a moment more. "I thought babies were a good thing." In his experience, there was always a celebration when a baby was born.

"They are, Tsu-chan, but it's better if their mamas are married first."

"Oh." He wasn't sure what he thought about that.

"Those are awfully big questions for a little guy. It's not something you have to worry about right now."

"Oh." Actually, that was kind of a relief.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Kagome-sama!" That was Eiichi's frantic voice on the porch. "Kagome-sama, come quick! Kaede-sama has fallen down the shrine steps!"

Kagome scrambled out of bed in the early dawn light, slipped a jacket over her pajamas and grabbed her medical kit while InuYasha pulled his kimono off the bed and put it on, then grabbed his sword. They hurried after Eiichi to the base of the shrine steps where Kaede lay covered by Eiichi's coat. Hideo was squatting beside her talking to her encouragingly while they waited for Kagome.

"Oh, my goodness,what happened?" Kagome asked as she dropped to her knees and began examining Kaede.

"I took a tumble down the steps," Kaede replied.

"Were you pushed?" InuYasha asked. There had been a suspicious number of accidents lately, mostly to people who supported him.

"No," Kaede replied. "I just caught my sandal on a flagstone near the top. I'm afraid I twisted my knee rather badly and threw out my back. I haven't been able to stand up."

Kagome examined Kaede carefully and determined that outside of a collection of bruises and scrapes, nothing more was injured, then InuYasha carried the old woman back to her hut.

"I'm sorry, Kagome-chan, but I'm afraid you will have to take over caring for Yozo and his friends. I can't get around with my knee and back like this."

"You can't be serious!" InuYasha yelped. "Those hoodlums nearly killed our son and now Kagome has to take care of them? What kind of bullshit is that?"

"We don't have any other healers," Kagome said with resignation. "It doesn't matter whether or not I happen to like them, I have a duty."

"Kagome!"

"I can do this," Kagome said firmly. "As a healer, I am obligated to care for anyone in need."

"That is just fucking insane!" InuYasha protested.

"Nevertheless," Kagome replied evenly.

"Do you think they're even going to let you in the door?" InuYasha asked skeptically.

"I'll find that out when I get there."

InuYasha, of course, was not about to let Kagome visit any of these households unguarded. They found a wide array of reactions as they made the rounds and relayed the news of Kaede's injuries.

Ichiro's family refused them entrance and only took the ointments Kagome offered when she assured them Kaede had mixed them, not her. InuYasha and Ichiro's father exchanged venomous looks while Kagome talked to Ichiro's mother about how to apply the medicines, and they could hear the softly muttered curse as they left.

"About what I expected," InuYasha muttered as they walked to the next house. "Are you sure there's any point in continuing?"

There was. Saburo's parents were profusely apologetic about the conduct of their son, and Saburo himself was suffering paroxysms of guilt and remorse. He wept the entire time Kagome was tending him, asking if he was going to die, declaring he deserved to and promising the gods he would never do such a thing again if he lived.

Kagome gently applied ointments to the deep, ragged slashes across his back as she listened to his tormented confession.

"All of us are guilty of something," she assured him. "Some people do worse things than others, but if you are truly remorseful and work to be kinder, I believe we can find it in ourselves to forgive you."

Saburo wept even more bitterly and her words, swearing he didn't deserve her mercy.

"That's for me to choose," she replied. "I don't think you're an ogre at heart, and I expect you'll show me this when you've recovered."

Kingo's family displayed very mixed feelings about the whole affair. One moment, they were angrily berating their son for associating with Yozo and for his role in the attack, and in the next breath berating a bristling InuYasha for seriously overstepping the bounds of civilized behavior in his response. Kingo himself was sullenly belligerent, both to Kagome and to his family, responding to both only in wordless grunts and showing no appreciation whatsoever for her efforts. Kagome held her tongue through the ordeal, only allowing at the end as she gave his parents some ointments that there had been more than enough guilt to go around for everyone. That small concession mollified his parents considerably and they parted on cordial, if rather cool, terms.

They reserved Yozo for last. This time, Kagome insisted that she go alone, although InuYasha could remain close at hand to monitor the situation. She loathed the thought of facing Yozo and Kaou in their domain, but knew she would have to do it eventually. Even so, it took her some time to gain the composure she would need for the meeting. After visiting the shrine to pray for serenity, she approached Kaou's house and announced herself.

Kaou met her at the door, looked her over sharply, then snorted, "It's about time you showed up to atone for your beast."

Kagome clenched her teeth tightly, took a deep breath and held it, shaking, until she could trust herself to speak. In the end, she gave it up; nothing she could think to say would penetrate that impervious heart. She pushed her way silently into the house and made her way to Yozo's side. Kaou's beaten-down shell of a husband, who was sitting by the hearth, looked up briefly from his jug of sake and her cowed daughter stole a glance from where she stood washing dishes. Neither of them acknowledged her presence beyond those brief looks. Yozo looked up from his futon, where he lay on his belly with a light cloth draped over his back and a dish of half-eaten food before him. His eyes widened in fear and he tried to scramble away from Kagome, but the pain of his injuries forced him back down.

"What's the matter, Yozo-chan?" Kaou asked. "It's all right. She's come to make amends for that unprovoked attack from her dog-man, that's all."

"Oh, I expect he remembers it a little differently, don't you Yozo?" Kagome said. "You can begin to make amends by explaining what really happened to your mother."

"Eh?" Kaou snarled. "You've some nerve, making those accusations in my house. You're a fine one, you are, pretending you're so pure while breeding monstrosities with that misbegotten cur from the forest. They've no place mixing with real people."

"How interesting," Kagome replied coolly. "That's not the story I hear when the brigands get chased off or our stolen horses get recovered by my husband. No one complains when a nest of youkai predators gets exterminated. My son was helping to chase rabbits and birds from the fields when he was attacked by your son and his friends. He could have died that day. I don't take that lightly, Kaou-san, and I don't take lightly the pain you've inflicted on this village with your machinations. That's no way to treat good people.

"Huh. They're not so good," Kaou scoffed. "They've done those things, just ask if they haven't. They deserve what they got."

"Do they?" Kagome asked earnestly. "Every one of them has been paying back since the day of their failing. What about their families and their friends? Do they deserve to get caught up in it? No one here is perfect; we all have flaws and we all make mistakes. Even so, we all do our best to make up for our failings. Except here." Kagome's eyes grew hard and angry. "I've never once seen anyone from this household show any regret."

"Nor shall you," Kaou replied flatly. "I've done nothing but speak the truth."

Kagome's hand snapped out of its own volition and struck a stinging slap hard across Kaou's face. Kaou's family stared in shock at the red hand print emblazoned across Kaou's face as Kagome declared, "That's so you can feel some of the pain you've inflicted on your neighbors. You are unbelievable! I've never met anyone so callous in my life. I hope you feel this every time you even think of trying your games again." She turned and marched out of the house.

"The nerve of that little... Well, let's just see what happens when I tell... Augh!" Kaou lifted her hand to cover the hand print Kagome had left on her face. It had been fading; now it flared glowing red and burned searingly into her cheek. Kaou stood staring out the door as the full impact of that slap sank in. "That... That little witch cursed me!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The River Woman held her stinging hand before her face and smiled. That felt good. She didn't often reach into the mortal world, but this was satisfying. Next, she lifted the seal on Saburo's wounds; now they would heal quickly and cleanly.

That would be food for the thoughts of the villagers. If the obvious benefits of InuYasha's labors were not enough to get them to accept him and his family, she would make it clear that he had the backing of a god.

_Authors Note:_

_Yes, yes, I know, it's been wa-a-ay too long. I didn't drop off the edge of the Earth, and I only fell into one small black hole called "Joseph Campbell". I probably wrote and threw away more text on this chapter than any of the others to date. Finally, I had to decide where I wanted characters to be for the next few "years" and guide the story that way until they landed where I wanted them. It took me a while to concoct all the nasty scandals too. I think it's still a bit roughly cut, but it's time to move it along. _

_Also, my at-home cheering section has talked me into trying to write a commercial story. Some of my time is going to get siphoned into that for a while, but I promise I won't shelve this story._

_As for Joseph Cambell, all of you serious writers probably want to read "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" if you haven't already. There are patterns out there that all stories follow and this book provides a roadmap. There is a danger of getting sucked up into Campbell's other writings, but it's worth the journey._


	53. Chapter 53 Kagome Gets an Education

Chapter 53 - Kagome gets an Education

Saburo's repentance and subsequent miraculous recovery was noted and discussed at length by the village gossips. Kaou's strange affliction also provided much fodder for discussion. Kaou, herself, remained uncharacteristically tightlipped about the story behind the red hand print on her face, and the residents of the village were surprised that there were no scandalous stories about Kagome coming forth, even though Kagome had obviously confronted Kaou. Opinion was divided on whether recent developments were caused by spiritual powers, youkai spells, divine intervention or merely long overdue karma. About all that anyone could agree on was that it was wise to stay in Kagome's good graces.

Kingo's parents were quick to grasp the implications, and they pressured Kingo to do his penance to InuYasha, Kagome and Tsuchiya, which he eventually grudgingly did. The River Woman permitted his injuries to heal, but left sufficient scarring on his back to remind him of the gods' wrath. Ichiro and Yozo healed slowly and were left with debilitating scars as a result of their intransigence.

Saburo divested himself of his old friends, but found that the rest of the village youngsters still wanted nothing to do with him. He found solace and purpose in throwing himself into an apprenticeship with Hikaru, the village carpenter.

The rest of the village haltingly resumed normal life, although many things were never quite the same. Kaou's actions had left hard feelings between many former friends and relations, and people were having a hard time adjusting to the ugly revelations about themselves and their neighbors.

Kagome entered Aiko's shop one afternoon to restock her supply of mirin and vinegar. Sango was there ahead of her getting her own orders filled. Aiko filled Sango's order with her usual care and they quietly concluded their business, then Sango walked stiffly out of the shop. Both were coolly cordial, but an invisible Miroku loomed large between them.

Aiko sighed and turned to Kagome after Sango was well away. "Life's trials don't tie themselves up in neat little packages, do they? You dealt with Kaou, and we're grateful, but even so, her tales continue to plague us. I like Sango-san and wish I could be easy with her again. We were fighting on the same side and still we end up enemies."

"Give her time," Kagome said. "Sango-chan is a very forgiving person, but she's still hurting from ... everything."

"It's asking too much, and I know it. I still can't forgive myself for causing her all that pain. But I... No. I was wrong and that's all there is to it. I won't make excuses." Aiko swallowed hard and took Kagome's flasks. "Mirin, was it?"

"Mirin and vinegar."

"Right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harvest came and went, and with a long winter with three house-bound kids facing her, Kagome decided it was past time to get her children's schooling in order. With Mama's help, she selected a collection of primers, notepads, pens, pencils and other assorted equipment to set up school.

InuYasha viewed the new acquisitions with skepticism. "You really think this is going to work?" he asked as Kagome put the supplies on a free shelf.

"This is important," she replied firmly. "I have it all figured out. I'll just wait for a rainy day to start, when there's nothing else to do. That should get us off to a good start."

"Yeah, right."

"You could work at being encouraging," she commented tartly. "You're not helping anything by being so negative."

One morning in early November, the first winter storm blustered its way into the valley with howling winds and sheets of rain. Tsuchiya and Toushi stood in the doorway disconsolately, watching the day's fun wash away. Kagome seized her opportunity, cleared the table from breakfast and laid out the primers, some abacuses, and some paper and pencils. Then she said brightly to the children, "I have something special I've been saving up for us to do on stormy days like today. It's such a bore sitting around watching the rain. Let's try this instead."

Tsuchiya and Toushi turned quizzically and inspected the table. Toushi lit up at the idea of books, but Tsuchiya looked considerably more dubious.

Kagome held up and rattled an abacus.

"Ohh!" Toushi cried. "Kanesuki-san uses that to figure out medicines."

"Yes," Kagome said. "Do you want to know how it works?"

Even InuYasha looked interested in this one. Everyone settled around the table and picked up an abacus. When Noriko decided bang the table with hers, Kagome quickly swapped it out for a puzzle she was fond of.

Clicking the counter beads was fun. So was sliding the beads to show Kagome different numbers. Everyone was still practicing making numbers with the beads when Wataru-san interrupted the lesson with the news that a large tree had fallen at the other end of the village, crashing into three houses. There were people trapped inside and they needed InuYasha's help right away to clear the tree. InuYasha jumped up and followed Wataru out into the storm, Kourogi at his heels.

Kagome got everyone's attention back on the lesson, then it all started falling apart as she moved to the next step, addition and subtraction. The concept of carrying beads across to the next digit in addition was mildly confusing, but borrowing for subtraction brought Tsuchiya to a screeching halt. While Toushi carefully and thoughtfully worked her way through "13 - 8", Tsuchiya found other uses for his abacus. First, he rattled the beads by Noriko's ear as she worked on her puzzle. She batted it away with a squeal of annoyance.

Kagome moved him to the other side of the table and set him to work on "11 - 2". He carefully set the beads up to show "11", stared at it for a while, then decided it was more fun to try to roll the abacus across the table making noises like the streetcars that drove past the Higurashi Shrine in modern times. After a few passes back and forth in front of him, he sent his 'streetcar' careening across the table to crash into Toushi's 'car', completely spoiling her working of "25 - 7". Her temper flared and she whacked him over the head with her abacus. Rin and Shippo decided that maybe 'adult' lessons could be held at another time and quickly found useful chores to do.

Kagome confiscated the abacuses and called a short recess, then moved on to writing practice. First, she recited the basic hiragana syllables for them to draw, which both of them managed well enough for legibility. Next, she asked them to draw a small cluster of basic kanji. Toushi, who looked at the children's library often, easily produced them, but Tsuchiya could only remember a couple. Kagome patiently guided him through drawing each of them while Toushi watched, obviously annoyed at being stuck waiting for her slowpoke brother to catch up. Kagome changed the game, giving a new set of kanji characters to Toushi, while she repeated the ones Tsuchiya had just worked. Toushi drew her kanji and Tsuchiya drew doodles of lizards.

Noriko was now bored with her puzzle and she started banging the pieces loudly on the table. Kagome gathered up the pieces and was putting the puzzle away when Tsuchiya's gray kitten, Thistle, bolted in the door, sopping wet, and jumped onto the table to drip all over the papers and books.

Kagome declared another recess so she could dry off Thistle and clean up the mess. Thistle protested the towel treatment by clamping down on Kagome's hand and arm with his claws and nipping her fingers. She peeled him off and threw him out on the porch for bad manners, reflecting that Rin really had found the perfect name for him. He might look soft and harmless with all that gray fluff, but more often than not, she got a handful of prickles when she handled him.

School reconvened after lunch. Kagome put Noriko down for her nap and pulled out a beginning geography book. Tsuchiya and Toushi sat on each side of her as she opened the book. It started with a map of Japan. Kagome pointed out the different islands and named them.

"Where are we?" Toushi asked.

"We're on Honshu," Kagome replied pointing out the big island in the center of the map.

"Which part?" Tsuchiya asked.

Kagome pointed to Tokyo.

"What's all that pink part?" Toushi asked.

"That's ... um ... Tokyo. The pink parts on the map are cities." Kagome winced inwardly. Maybe she should have looked at the books closer before beginning.

"We're not in Tokyo. That's where Grandma is!" Tsuchiya protested.

"Well... actually, we are, just, we're here before the city was built. I'll ... I'll have to find a map of Sengoku era Japan to show you."

"What's Sengoku?" Toushi asked.

"Sengoku is the name I learned for the time we live in here when I was learning history at Grandma's. You see, we don't change places when we go through the well, we really change times."

"Oh. What do us people call Grandma's time?"

"Umm, it hasn't happened yet, so it doesn't have a name here."

Toushi looked confused. "It has too happened. I been there."

"We go many many years into the future. Where you've been will really happen a long time from now."

"I want to go to tomorrow!" Tsuchiya declared. "I want to see if it's the same when I wake up tomorrow as it is today."

"We can't do that. The well only takes us to Grandma's time. It doesn't do any other times."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Umm ... I don't know."

"Why?"

"I, uh, I don't know how it works in the first place."

"Well, I wanna try it." Tsuchiya declared. "Let's go!" He jumped up from his seat to go get his coat.

Thunder boomed directly overhead and the house shook under another blast of wind, then the roof rattled loudly as hailstones bounced on the ground outside.

"Oh, look. Hail!" Kagome said, peering outside. "Let's try this another day, shall we?" At the back of her head, she could feel the beginning signs of a roaring headache coming on.

Tsuchiya looked very disappointed and was quite grumpy when Kagome settled them back down beside her to try the next book. Maybe science would be safer.

This book began with categorizing the different types of animals in the world: fish, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals and so forth. A few defining properties for each were described with colorful pictures of representative species. Toushi cooed over the pictures, but Tsuchiya, who was still feeling grumpy, looked at them critically, then asked, "Where are the youkai?"

Kagome's headache exploded through her skull and settled into her brow, throbbing rhythmically.

"Um, the magic animals aren't here."

"Why not?" Toushi asked.

"The people who wrote the book don't think they exist..." Kagome's voice trailed off as she looked at her dog-eared children beside her.

"That's so stupid!" Tsuchiya cried indignantly.

"Yeah!" Toushi agreed.

"You know, there really aren't very many youkai in Grandma's time." Kagome explained.

"What happened to them?" Toushi asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't around when they went away."

"I think they're just hiding," Tsuchiya declared stoutly.

"Do you think we could find some if we looked?" Toushi asked. "Grampa must know where they are."

The children happily started planning a youkai hunt with Grampa for their next visit while Kagome put away the science book and started rooting through her medical supplies for the aspirin. Two, this was going to take at least two. She brewed some tea to help her head stop spinning. Maybe reading would not be so controversial...

"Let's take turns reading a story, shall we? Grandma gave me a book of fairy stories."

They sat down again and worked their way through one story, taking turns reading paragraphs and discussing words they hadn't seen before. Kagome marked new kanji for future practice.

"Mama, did that story really happen?" Toushi asked after they were done.

Kagome started to say "No," then paused. How could she just say "no" when she lived surrounded by fairy-tale creatures, when her daughter who asked the question was a fairy-tale creature? Once again, she was forced to admit, "I don't know."

InuYasha and Kourogi returned about an hour later to find the children happily building block towers and knocking them down.

"Hey, I thought you were going to do school lessons," he said, looking around the room. There was no sign of Kagome or the lesson books about.

"We did for a while," Kagome said from the dark corner where she reclined with a pot of tea at her side and a steaming compress over her eyes and brow. "You know, until to day I really didn't know just how much I don't know."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome did not give up on the idea of education, but she was forced to revise her lesson techniques over and over. Since "I don't know" refused to leave the lesson scene, she changed it to "I don't know. Let's see what we can find out." All troublesome questions were carefully noted and research excursions were organized to explore the troublesome topics. It added up to a lot of family-together time and as the winter dragged on, the siblings chafed on each other.

Fidgety Tsuchiya came to loathe lesson time. There was no escaping the fact that some topics required sitting quietly and practicing things, which was tremendously difficult for him. He squirmed and whined through his work periods and did just exactly as little as he could get away with and still escape. Kagome tried to enforce minimum practice times by setting her old alarm clock to regulate when he could leave the table. He discovered if he pestered Toushi enough, she would explode and both of them would get thrown outside to cool off.

Toushi, on the other hand, was in her element. She deeply resented Tsuchiya's disruptions of her interesting study sessions and was particularly annoyed that he seemed to be so satisfied with the results of his teasing. He just smirked when she yelled at him and since he was bigger and stronger than she was, physical retribution was self-defeating. She chose to get even by working ever harder at her studies to make his failures all the more glaring. Tsuchiya, in turn, resented that information seemed to flow so easily into her mind and remain there forever, neatly filed and cross-referenced for all occasions.

Noriko remained on the fringes of the lesson scene. Kagome kept her involved by handing her animal pictures to color, map puzzles to work, and shape blocks to build. While she and Tsuchiya often drove Toushi crazy by throwing blocks at each other or racing abacuses across the table, it wasn't always so friendly between them. Tsuchiya felt that since he was older and a boy, it was his right and duty to lord it over his younger sisters. Neither of them was much impressed with this logic, and they bonded over ganging up on him to smack him back into place.

Tsuchiya's campaign to enforce his seniority privileges was not faring well, and he could hardly wait for his new brother to arrive to even the odds. It seemed to be taking forever; Mama got rounder and rounder and despite her assurances that his brother would be here soon, he felt about ready to explode.

Finally, in early spring, the day came that Papa collected him and his sisters and took them to visit Grandma while Mama gave birth. A few short hours later, Papa returned briefly to report the birth had gone well and Mama and the new baby were resting.

The next morning, Papa took them home again to meet their new sibling. Tsuchiya found his new brother a crushing disappointment. He had forgotten how little and useless a new baby was. The tiny mite sleeping in Mama's arms wasn't going to be able to do anything in the war against his sisters for ages.

Toushi inspected her new brother with her hawk-bright eyes for a long moment, then decided he'd do. Noriko viewed him with suspicion, unsure what his presence was going to do to her standing and what she should do about it.

They named him 'Taibou', the Eagerly Awaited one. In this child, there had been no angst about the future, no question about his parentage, just happy anticipation. InuYasha and Kagome were finally relaxing into their role as parents.

Toushi tended to pronounce it "Taiba". Tsuchiya called her to task on it shortly afterward as they practiced kanji at the table. Rolling his eyes with his most irritatingly superior big-brother tone, he said, "It's Taibo-oh, not Taiba-ah. You know, kind of like "No-ohriko."

While Toushi drew her ears back and glared at him with sullen resentment at the reminder of her pronunciation problems, Nariko said in a prim voice, "I like Nariko."

Toushi's glare became smugly triumphant.

Tsuchiya's ears flattened as he became surly in turn; they were ganging up on him again.

Noriko wasn't one to let it go at that. She announced at dinner that she was to be called 'Nariko' from now on.

"Oh, really," InuYasha said with raised eyebrows.

"Yes." The prim look was back, feminizing, but not softening, the steely golden eyes backing up that assertion.

Names were a fluid commodity in medieval Japan. People often acquired new names after notable events or accomplishments. A boy generally took a new name when he became a man at fifteen. Still, Noriko's declaration was unusual for someone her age.

InuYasha stared at her for a while. Asking why of someone this age was not likely to yield a coherent answer. He was aware of the ongoing friction between Toushi and Tsuchiya over Toushi's pronunciation, and figured that Noriko was just stirring the pot for some reason. He let it drop, believing it would blow over soon.

However, Noriko, now Nariko, proceeded to firmly correct everyone who slipped into the old pronunciation until she had them all retrained. She particularly enjoyed correcting Tsuchiya. He decided he was not about to give her the satisfaction of a war over Taibou's name; 'Taibou' quietly became 'Taiba'.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Authors Note:_

_The new baby, Taiba, has arrived and so has our next CONTEST._

_I suppose you have all noticed that each of these children has his or her own unique talent for driving parents crazy._

_The person or persons who can come closest to guessing Taiba's talent will be awarded the answer to one question __or__ a bit of spoiler text highlighting Taiba's talent for their entertainment._

_Submissions can be sent in until June 5, 2010._

_Have fun!_


	54. Chapter 54 Stirring the Pot

Chapter 54 - Stirring the Pot

Was there anything in all the Realms more stubborn than a bitch? Sesshomaru sat for months at the mouth of the cave where his young son resided, waiting for Inazuma to come negotiate the terms of their campaign with him. While he sat, exerting silent pressure with his mere presence, he had gleaned a few useful facts from the traffic around the cave.

The bitch in charge of his son was Inazuma's littermate, Kazeko. She was lean, hard, fearless and capable, but she didn't have Inazuma's imagination or daring. Inazuma would have been hard-pressed to find a better lieutenant; Kazeko got done whatever Inazuma wanted and kept her mouth tightly shut. Kazeko wasn't pleased by Sesshomaru's presence, and she was even less pleased that she had found no way to dislodge him. Frosty waves of disapproval flowed continuously from the mouth of the cave as she, too, awaited Inazuma's instructions.

The only indication either of them had that they had not been written off was an occasional overflight by one or another of the palace staff tanuki who were evidently monitoring the location.

xXxXxXxX

Was there anything in all the Realms more stubborn than a dog? It had been nine months since Inazuma had installed her son in that windy mountain cave with her sister and still Sesshomaru sat outside the mouth of the cave, an immovable impediment to her plans. Did he have any appreciation whatsoever of the delicacy of her position? She didn't dare leave the litter unattended with the Lady this close by; she had no doubt that Kouri was just waiting for the opportunity to spirit them away to train them herself. In the meantime, she and Karimaru were cautiously dancing around each other; plain speaking was utterly impossible and they both knew it. She could not plan her campaign without a complete understanding of where Karimaru stood. Could she work with him? How much did he know? Most importantly, what did he really want? Ultimately, Karimaru was the one thing that could make or break her. She really didn't need Sesshomaru being difficult on top of everything else.

If she could just draw the Lady out of the palace for a few days... What would do that? She was tempted to start some rumor concerning that hanyou bastard the Lady was so obsessed with, but that was too obvious. Still, it would be interesting to see how Karimaru reacted to it. She considered it for a while, then shelved it for another day.

Damn Mother anyway! This was not where she intended to be. She had selected a fine young dog from the Sea Dogs and they were just waiting for her heat to come on to seal their union. Instead, that social cripple Sesshomaru was foisted off on her. She really owed Mother a thank you gift. She also wanted to find the breach in security that had clued Mother in to her plans. Perhaps she could kill three birds with her stone.

Inazuma went to her calligraphy table and took up paper and brush to compose her message.

Ice seizes my heart, Storm and Sea shall not unite. Repent, guilty Rain!

She grimaced at the artlessness of it. No subtlety to tease out, no harmonics to appreciate, a very poor effort indeed. She sighed and shrugged; it would have to do. She sealed it and called her maid.

"Sanjuusan..."

The little tanuki maid scurried before her and prostrated herself. "Yes, Hime-ue."

"I wish to send a message to Oukiinami of the Sea Dog Clan.

"Yes, Hime-ue."

"Take this necklace. Do you see the shell mounted in the medallion?"

"Yes, Hime-ue."

"Go to the small island just visible from the peak of the Mount of Souls in the Eastern Sea. On the south point of this island, you will find a torii gate formed from the stone of the cliffs by the sea. Place this shell on the shelf within the gate and wait for him there. Oukiiname holds another jewel, one filled with stormy currents and lightning that I gave to him. You may know him by this jewel. Give him this."

As Sanjuusan turned to leave, Inazuma added, "Oh, and while you are there, collect for me the leaves of the red sea-plant which grows on the rocks of those shores. It is an excellent tonic for developing youki reserves in growing pups."

And an excellent cover story for an excursion to the sea by her maid.

xXxXxXxX

Oukiiname and his hunting party stood on the windy headlands of his Clan's citadel island and looked down at the Gate. The blue-gray dogs with restless, shifting gray-blue eyes blended with the dark gray granite of the cliff and restless, moody blues of the ocean. Oukiiname was answering a long-expected call from a certain black-haired princess of lightning and storms.

Oukiiname's chosen one was not down there, although her token was. Instead, he saw a miserable little tanuki maid shivering in the spray of the rising tide.

"Brother?"

"Secure the Gate. I'm going down."

Oukiiname's brother nodded to the rest of the party, who silently arrayed themselves on the cliffs above the Gate, bows drawn.

Oukiiname jumped down from the cliff and entered the Gate, picked up the shell and closely inspected it, then turned to the little tanuki girl prostrated at his feet.

"Inazuma-hime-ue sends me with a message for Oukiiname-sama," the girl said softly.

"I am Oukiiname."

"Hime-ue spoke of an answering token," the tanuki said diffidently.

Oukiiname pulled a necklace from under his kimono and handed it to her. Set in its medallion was a stone with restless swirling clouds undulating through it punctuated with small sharp flashes of white light.

Sanjuusan bowed and handed him back the jewel, then gave him the poem. He read it carefully, then blew out a breath as he gazed out to the restless sea. Was it a fake? The poem was not up to Inazuma's usual standards. It was as blunt as a bludgeon. He sniffed it delicately; yes, that was her scent-seal on it. So. Was she being forced to write someone else's message?

There had been rumors - a forced mating concocted by the two powerful Clan Ladies of Sky and Storm to deal with their most troublesome whelps, privy only to the Houses involved. It explained why she had vanished for so long.

Oukiiname waved down his brother and handed him the poem. "It appears that I have lost my bride."

The other dog read the poem, then said, "So it was to have been Storm-Dog Inazuma. You aimed high, Brother."

"It looks like her mother agreed. She didn't waste any time clipping her wings."

"So, what will you do now? It looks like she wants to recruit you to get back at her mother. That's just asking for trouble."

"I'm in the mood for stirring up some trouble," Oukiiname replied.

"Mother won't thank you for starting a feud with the Storm Dogs."

"That's not what I intend."

Oukiiname knew exactly where he should go to gain satisfaction. He may have been Inazuma-hime's chosen dog, but he was by no means the only dog captivated by her when she took her tour of the courts. Her most publicly determined suitor was a scion of the Cloud Dogs. The Cloud Lady, eager to infuse new vigor into the attenuated bloodlines of the Cloud Clan, had actively supported her son's courtship.

The Cloud Clan was an ancient dynasty whose many generations had accumulated so many traditions, protocols and rituals that life in their world was stifling. Most of the dogs raised in that rarified, oppressive atmosphere had been smothered to dullness, many of the remainder were highly eccentric and utterly impractical, but there was the rare dog who survived the training to become brilliant and subtle. The current Lady of the Cloud Dogs was one of the rare prodigies.

After years of chafing futilely against the restrictions of her Clan's customs, she did an apparent about-face and ran with it. She now amused herself by making her court a satire of Heian Court practice, complete with waka poetry parties, moon viewing excursions and spicy petty scandal. The ironic comparison was not lost on the rest of the Dog Clans, most of whom occupied themselves with hunting, industry and the serious business of raising strong children, but the Cloud Elders never caught on to the joke.

After describing the dreamlike confection that was the Cloud Court, Inazuma had summed it up to Oukiiname by saying, "There's no there there." Oukiiname had to agree. The spectacle was dazzling, but the air of vigor and purpose that marked most courts was missing.

Upon arrival, he was officially greeted by the Lady Kusoko and her painfully simple mate, Chinpumaru. Kusoko-sama dominated the room with her presence. Like most of the Cloud Dogs, she was tall, slender and very fair, with a knee-length sweep of straight white hair caught at the nape of her neck, clear sky-blue eyes and gleaming white fur. She was dressed in a shimmering multitude of fluttering robes of sparkling white, gleaming silver, soft gray, pale icy blue and the most delicate of lavenders. The pattern on her brocade over-robe seemed to drift hypnotically across the fabric like clouds across a lazy summer sky as she moved. Oukiiname fought to keep his head clear as she escorted him about the Court, introducing him to various family members and the other guests of the Court.

Oukiiname soon found himself surrounded by a flock of fluttering, bright Cloud maidens who flirted and chattered around him, eager to hear the tales of the other Courts. He obliged them with a humorous tale of the courting of his sister by a Seal Lord, an exciting account of running in The Great Hunt with Susano-o and the Storm Dogs, then he whispered to the wide-eyed girls the scandalous, yet romantic, rumor that Inazuma of the Storm Dogs had been spirited away to a clandestine match with the last scion of the Sky Dogs. All the Courts were speculating about it, but nothing could be verified except that Inazuma had not been seen for over a year. It was easily the juiciest piece of gossip to enter the Cloud Court in years.

Oukiiname was not greatly surprised to receive an invitation the next day to ride in the Lady's boat to a waka party in honor of the colorful autumn leaves. He joined Lady Kusoko, Lord Chinpumaru, their son, Fubatsu, who had been avidly courting Inazuma and their extremely quiet, almost mousy, daughter, Yubiko.

"It's so stimulating to have another opinion to help us judge the waka," Lady Kusoko remarked as he settled onto a cushion and looked out over the water. "Tell me, everyone, what shall we award points for this time?"

"Five points if the poem mentions leaves," the Lord Chinpumaru said promptly.

"Of course. It couldn't be any other way," the Lady murmured, although the other occupants of the boat had the frozen look of distaste that suggested they had heard this far too many times before from him and had given up on hearing anything more profound.

"Perhaps we should have points for thoughts on how the leaves' reflection echoes their reality," Yubiko said softly.

"A worthy thought," Lady Kusoko said as Oukiiname looked at Yubiko anew. She had been so very quiet that he had believed her simple also, but perhaps there was more to her than he thought.

"I think points for comparing the transience of the leaves to the durability of the mountain," Fubatsu declared.

"Also a worthy idea," Lady Kusoko remarked, noting it down. "Does our honored guest have any thoughts?"

"Let us judge also on how Autumn speaks of the other seasons."

"Ah! I knew you would not disappoint us," Kusoko said, writing down the last criterion. "This should be an interesting competition."

The boats docked at a picturesque island and all the guests disembarked. Lady Kusoko gathered them around to draw lots for teams, then she listed the judging criteria and set them loose to compose.

"They have until the Tiger Hour to write, then we shall judge. In the meantime, let us try our hands at sumi-e painting." Kusoko gestured to her maid, who place a large basket before them and passed out paper, ink and brushes.

This was quite outside of Oukiiname's experience. Yubiko took him in hand and quietly explained some basic brush techniques, which she demonstrated by creating a sketch with a few deft strokes that was a suggestion, rather than a depiction, of the trees and the lake's shore. She blushed prettily and became very embarrassed by his compliments of her work. She seemed even more flustered by his clumsiness as he took his turn; she wanted to correct his stroke, but didn't have the nerve to say anything critical.

Fubatsu approached to look over Oukiiname's shoulder, ostensibly to look at his work, but really to whisper, "I don't think much of your lies about Inazuma-sama. We have been negotiating a match with her for some time now."

"Ah," Oukiiname replied. "Perhaps you know something I do not. When was the last time you saw Hime-sama?"

"I last saw her at the Mountain Dog's Snow Festival."

"That was nearly two years ago," Oukiiname remarked. He remembered it well. It was at that festival that Inazuma had pledged to him her troth by giving him her storm-stone. "Have you heard nothing since?"

"We got hung up with questions of protocol," Fubatsu growled. "Out Elders are so particular. Ame-onna-sama sends endless questions clarifying the correct procedures, and it's never quite right."

"Do you think it will ever be right?" Oukiiname asked cynically.

Fubatsu frowned. "What are you implying?"

"Nothing at all. The Cloud Elders are legendary for their exacting and difficult protocols."

Fubatsu continued to frown thoughtfully as he pondered the apparent stalemate in negotiations. A short time later, he excused himself and could be seen talking with increasing agitation with his mother.

The next day, messengers were dispatched north by the Lady. As she awaited their return, it was evident she was having to work to maintain a gracious demeanor. It was common knowledge she had been having words with the Elders; she invariably emerged from those meetings with vividly flushed cheeks and flashing eyes. The staff stepped carefully around her and still suffered the brunt of her seething anger.

The atmosphere in the Court changed from hovering suspicion to blazing fury shortly after the messengers returned. Despite Lady Kusoko's explicit instructions, they had not been permitted to speak with Inazuma. They ventured the opinion that she was no longer in the Storm Dogs' domain.

Oukiiname found himself summoned before Lady Kusoko shortly afterward for a thorough questioning about every scrap of information and rumor he knew about Inazuma's whereabouts and condition. Lady Kusoko then closeted herself with the Clan Elders once more to grimly press for vengeance upon the Storm Dogs for this grave offense to the Cloud Dogs' honor.

As the Cloud Dogs prepared for war, Oukiiname took his leave of their court, very pleased with the hornet's nest he had stirred up.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Weeks later, clouds gathered in serried ranks in the Southern Isles, then swept north toward the rough shores of Hokkaido. They passed over the length of Honshu in their legions, provoking much speculation in those who watched their passage.

Toushi looked up at them as she played outside in the meadow below her house.

"Mama, look!" she cried pointing at the sky. "The clouds are all in rows. How do they do that?"

"I'm not sure, dear," Kagome replied, also looking up from the herbs she was setting out in her new garden. "I think I saw a weather book that talked about cloud types. Maybe it can help." Still, she wasn't sure of that. Something about those clouds looked unnatural, like they were going somewhere with a purpose. South to north also wasn't normal for this time of year.

From his mountain perch, Sesshomaru frowned as he watched them pass. Not only was the weather pattern contrary to normal early spring patterns, those clouds were infused with a Dog-youkai aura. Only one clan had the resources to field a force of that size. Who had stirred the Cloud Dogs out of their self-indulgent dreams?

xXxXxXxX

Four black dogs swept in from the North on an icy wind, then landed at the gates of the Sky Dogs' Clan palace. Scarcely waiting long enough to be announced, Kurokumo, First Litter daughter of the Storm Dogs, escorted by three of her brothers, strode into the audience chamber of the Sky Dogs to confront the Lady Kouri.

"Lady, we have a situation," she said grimly.

Kouri noted that Kurokumo chose not to bow when she approached. Ame-onna had not been exercising herself too hard teaching her brood etiquette, she thought with a sniff.

"We?" she asked pointedly.

"We," Kurokumo said shortly. "You requested Inazuma specifically for this match, so you are in this as deep as we are. You promised us you could control her."

"You're just digging for excuses," Kouri declared. "Ame-onna-sama should have found a way to break off negotiations with the Cloud Dogs months ago. I can't possibly be held accountable for your clan dealings."

"Nevertheless, the Clouds are not likely to be satisfied with exacting their vengeance on just us. They'll want a piece of the Clan who got her, too. You can fight them with us or you can fight them here. It's your choice." Kurokumo nodded curtly, then turned on her heel and strode out of the audience chamber,

Just before she reached the palace gate, she paused and beckoned to one of the anxious tanuki who lined the halls, watching from servant's nooks and peering around corners at her as she passed. He flinched and scrambled to prostrate himself before her.

"Hime-sama."

"Tell your dear mistress, Inazuma, Mother knows exactly what she's doing," she said with soft menace."

"Hime-sama?" he gasped, not fully comprehending her implication.

"Just tell her."

"Y...yes, Hime-sama."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Author's Note: Lately I've been wishing that portions of my life would just take a vacation so I could have a chance to catch up. It's not been obliging very well, so I'm taking the vacation instead._

_I've just reached a reasonable breaking point in the current thread, so, even if it's shorter than usual, I figured it's better than waiting another month. The notebooks are going with me, but not a computer, so..._

_We only had the barest of glancing hits on the Taiba character contest. Shoomy2003 ventured that he was quiet. It's not the main way he drives his parents' crazy, but it is a contributing factor. Soon enough, I'll let that cat out of the bag. In the meantime, we need to catch up with the other threads._

_Other projects include a character glossary to eventually be added to my profile, but not today._


	55. Chapter 55 A Matter of Trust

Chapter 55 - A Matter of Trust

"Yes, hime-sama, that was what your onee-hime-sama said." The little tanuki servant remained prostrated, face down, before Inazuma, trembling slightly from the stress of delivering sharply worded messages between the masters.

"Hff." Inazuma chuckled softly. Kurokumo never had cared for her. And Mother... Well, whether or not Mother truly knew what Inazuma was doing, she was up to her ears in hot water right now and unlikely to be able to do much about her suspicions.

She laughed again, still mildly surprised at how well her little note had worked out. Oukiiname truly knew his way through the courts. It was such a pity that Sesshomaru was not so adept.

So. It would be interesting to see what the Lady Kouri would choose to do. If she left to support the Storm Dogs, she risked leaving Inazuma and her litter unwatched; if she sat here, guarding her prize, she risked a siege from both the Cloud Dogs and the Storm Dogs. Mother would not be forgiving.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X.

"_You told us you could keep her under control._"

Interesting, Kouri mused. Ame-onna obviously thought Inazuma was somehow behind her current misfortunes, and Ame-onna was not given to either hysterics or paranoia. This would be the second time she had underestimated Inazuma. It must not happen again.

She stood at a tower window, looking down at Inazuma and her litter as they enjoyed the sun in a courtyard garden below her. Inazuma seemed to be completely absorbed in the work of rearing her litter. Even the exacting Kouri had found nothing to criticize in the way her daughter-in-law was handling her brood. Kouri had also seen no sign that Inazuma had either the time or the energy to pursue other projects. How was she doing it?

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Sanjuusan brought word that evening to Inazuma that the Lady Kouri had chosen to take the fight abroad. Even now, she was ensconced with the Forest Dogs and her Mountain Dog relations, discussing tactics and logistics for a mission to aid Ame-Onna and the Storm Dogs.

"Is she going with them?" Inazuma asked nonchalantly as she brushed her pups' fur before their bedtime.

"Yes, Hime-sama," Sanjuusan reported. "She wishes to confer with Ame-onna-sama."

"Ah." Damn. Mother was sure to put a bug in Kouri's ear. Judging by the way Kouri was watching her this afternoon, she was ready to listen now.

Inazuma finished grooming her children and put them to bed, then dismissed Sanjuusan for the evening. Now alone, she checked her hidden cache of escape materials. Perhaps she should take advantage of this opportunity to break free. What a difference it would make to have full control of her life!

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

While the Lady Kouri prepared for war, Inazuma maintained an illusion of being so absorbed in her pups that she essentially lived in an isolated little bubble, untouched by the outside world. Runners came and went from the palace, retainers arrived with their retinues, battle drills took place overhead and rang from the surrounding mountains, and still Inazuma went about her normal routines, unbothered by the commotion that surrounded her.

In time, Kouri declared herself satisfied and departed with her force for the Northern stronghold of the Storm Dogs. As the Sky Dogs' forces streamed out of the palace and took to the sky, Inazuma made an appearance on the wall with her pups to cheer them on their way, looking vulnerable and brave and grateful for their efforts. The little show piqued Kouri's suspicions; it was just too well timed, too carefully presented. She glanced sharply at Inazuma from where she stood in review, but Inazuma remained coolly irreproachable, smiling gamely and wishing Kouri and the army good fortune.

Inazuma lingered at the wall, watching the Sky Dogs and their vassals vanish to the north, then returned to her suite, her heart lighter than it had been in ages. She set the pups loose to tumble about the room while she recovered her cached supplies and prepared for departure.

"Lady, are you leaving so soon?"

Sparks flickered across Inazuma's fur, a scintillating net of electricity that glimmered across the velvety black. He called her 'Lady'. The deep thrill within her was undeniable, even though it meant he found her dangerous, and was thus dangerous himself.

"Karimaru-sama," she said, "I would have thought the Lady Kouri required your services."

"So she does," he replied. "Here, with her greatest treasure."

"I see. And who attends her in the war?"

"My sons have earned a chance to hone their skills."

"Of course." The Clan Lord who permitted his heirs to exercise their skills retained them longer in his service. Karimaru was wise in this regard.

Inazuma turned to face him. He was as smoothly urbane as ever, but the keenness of his gaze betrayed his interest. Kouri was gone; they could speak plainly at last.

"So, Karimaru-sama, what do you intend to do? Will you aid me or hinder me?"

He tilted his head, considering her. "That depends on you. What does Inazuma-sama intend, herself?"

"This Inazuma intends to visit her mate."

"That is an excellent idea. I highly recommend it. However, surely Inazuma-sama can do so without taking her pups."

"And what assurance does this Inazuma have that her pups will remain hers? Karimaru-sama is the sworn vassal of the Lady Kouri."

"The Forest Dogs are sworn to the Sky Dogs, and that is not necessarily the same thing," Karimaru remarked.

"You would betray your Lady?" Inazuma asked pointedly.

"I would serve the Sky Dogs."

"I ... see." How very interesting. Karimaru seemed to be shopping for a change of regime, but what was he looking for in his potential candidates? And just what did he mean by saying he served the Sky Dogs, not Kouri? "You served under Kazan-ue, didn't you?"

"I still do."

The racing strategies spinning in Inazuma's mind stopped short as she realized that even though she finally had the key to Karimaru, it would not serve her. Kazan's legend still resonated through the Dog Clans; he was their shining example of loyalty and integrity. Karimaru might choose to put Inazuma in power, but the instant she deviated from Kazan's standards, he would not hesitate to remove her. Still, the sword cut both ways; she could require him to maintain Kazan's standards in exchange for her cooperation. Now was a good time to test this working relationship.

"Then, by your oath to Kazan-ue, I charge you with guarding this product of his seed until I return to reclaim them. I will know everything that happens to them, and if they are disturbed in any way, I will be very displeased."

"By my oath to Kazan-ue, I pledge that they will be here and undisturbed when you return."

Inazuma let the lightning ripple through her fur again as a reminder of what she could do. "Just so we understand each other. I accept your pledge. The pups will remain here in my suite and Sanjuusan will attend to their needs. No one else comes in unless there is grave danger."

"As the Lady wishes." Karimaru bowed, and summoned Sanjuusan while Inazuma settled her litter, then he escorted her to the border of the Sky Dogs domain.

"Remember, they are mine!" Inazuma said fiercely as she transformed into a dog for her journey.

"They are the hope of the Sky Clan, not yours alone," Karimaru returned gravely. "Let us speak again when you return."

Inazuma leapt into the sky and ran north, seething for a time over her frustrated plans, then growing thoughtful as she chewed over the implications of what Karimaru had said. So, he still served Kazan and worked to rebuild the Sky Clan. What did he have to gain? Kazan was many years gone and Karimaru was much too practical to retain a pledge to a dead dog without some benefit to himself or his clan. He was risking a great deal treating with her; if the Lady ever found out, she would shatter the Forest Clan beyond recovery.

This meant that Karimaru trusted her judgment to some degree. Maybe she could work with him, within the parameters he required. She would have to consider this in depth.

First though, she must use her freedom effectively. She had some loose ends to tie off and, if all went well, an alliance to secure.

North, then east, she traveled, across the sea to the Citadel of the Sea Dogs. Inazuma plunged through the mists that surrounded the island and landed by the gate, then placed her token on the shelf.

A short time later, scouts arrived and took their positions on the headlands while their Prince came down the the gate to investigate.

"Inazuma-chan!" he cried, hastening forward to greet her.

As much as she had wanted to see Oukiiname, the bonds formed by her mating forbade his approach with a visceral rejection.

She held up her hand, reminding him she was taken. "I only have a short time, but I wanted to speak to you myself; it's only right. I did not betray you. Mother beguiled me into a trip to visit the Sky Dogs, 'for diplomatic training', she said. She intended diplomacy through breeding as it turned out. I am now mated to Sesshomaru of the Sky Dogs. I'm so sorry. This is not at all what I intended."

"Yes, I guessed as much. I got your note, and there have been rumors." Oukiiname's restless gray-blue eyes grew darker and grayer. "What's he like, this Sesshomaru? I only know the tales."

"I... I scarcely know," Inazuma admitted. "I've only seen him twice."

So that rumor was also true. "And yet, you are mated," Oukiiname declared.

"Yes."

"Are you mad, or is he?" The idea that a mated pair was not in close contact was against all nature, in Oukiiname's view.

Inazuma sighed. "Probably both," she admitted. "Neither of us is very pleased with our mothers, so we thought of a scheme where we would raise and train the pups right under their noses; let them teach the the pups everything they need to know to bring them down. Sesshomaru pretends to reject me to force his mother to take me in if she wants the pups to survive. It sounded good at the time, but it's proving more difficult than I thought."

"Kouri and Ame-onna? I should think!" Oukiiname snorted.

"They're not the hard part," Inazuma retorted. "I grew up with Mother, after all. I know that sort of bitch. It's Kazan's vassal, Karimaru, who's proving to be a challenge."

Oukiiname frowned. "Don't you mean Kouri's vassal?"

"Oh, no, Karimaru is Kazan's. He is most definitely Kazan's."

"That ... explains a great deal," Oukiiname said thoughtfully. Many had wondered why Kouri's ambitions had not been pursued more vigorously after Kazan's death.

"Yes, but it certainly doesn't simplify anything," Inazuma snapped.

Oukiiname quirked an eyebrow at her. "Of course not, but the thing that interested me most about you was the notion that you would be equal to great challenges. I would so hate to be disappointed."

"Even now?" Inazuma asked pointedly. "I'm never to be yours."

"I would prefer to have you, of course, but there are advantages to having us spread between two clans," Oukiiname proposed.

This was perhaps the greatest difference between Sesshomaru and Oukiiname. Where Sesshomaru had dedicated his efforts towards developing his battle skills, Oukiiname understood that the greater power lay in who one knew. He was already known across the Clans and had formed ties in many courts. Inazuma knew that once she had secured the Sky Dogs, she was going to need allies to keep her place, and Sesshomaru was not the one to provide them.

Unfortunately, Oukiiname was in not yet in a position to become her first great ally. He still needed to find a mate and establish his place among the clans in his own right. "Since we know that you can't have me, tell me, who would you now choose to be your mate?" she asked. Oukiiname's value to her would be heavily affected by whom he selected.

"I don't know yet. I've scarcely had time to look, but I did find a prospect in an unexpected place. She has wit enough, I believe. Right now, I'm waiting to see if she has the courage."

"Who?" Inazuma pressed.

"No, not yet. You'll know when I've chosen."

Inazuma mocked a pout, then said, "Very well, but choose well, my friend. I would so hate to be disappointed."

Oukiiname bowed slightly, the sparkle in his eyes matching hers.

"I have many sons, you know," Inazuma remarked. "If I am pleased with your Lady, perhaps I'll save one for you."

"I shall forbid him entry to my court," Oukiiname returned. "It will give him an incentive to prove himself and impress my daughters."

"Of course. We wouldn't want it to look like we approved."

They both laughed, remembering how the irresistible appeal of the forbidden had drawn Oukiiname, himself, into the Court of the Storm Dogs to find a black-furred princess who longed for a rascal daring enough to test her Father's wrath. Through the laughter, tears welled up in Inazuma's eyes. The dream they had shared truly was lost, she realized with an echoing sorrow. She turned away, hiding the tears, holding onto her dignity as best she could.

"I need to go," she said. "Sesshomaru, he's waiting for me. I... I wish you better fortune than I have found." She jumped into the sky and fled south, to seek the stranger she had wed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A whiff of a long-awaited scent crossed Sesshomaru's nose, rousing him from his meditation at the mouth of the cave. At last! He had been thinking he would need to steal his son, himself, to get her attention.

Kazeko joined him, also sniffing the air and looking out into the sky.

"She's here," she said.

"Yes," Sesshomaru replied, rising to his feet. "You will await our return here." He held her eye until she reluctantly nodded acquiescence, growling softly under her breath. She turned with a sniff and strode back into the cave as Sesshomaru leapt into the sky to meet his mate.

Inazuma dropped quickly to land in a secluded mountain glade shortly after Sesshomaru joined her. She touched down first and spun to face him, a dark, swirling cloud of black and gray. Once again, he was struck by the exquisite beauty of his mate, the silver-tipped black hair and clear, moonstone gray eyes, the deep gray fur-lined brocade haori, the gleaming layers of silk kimonos in smoky purples and blues and palest yellow. Unaccustomed longings tugged at his heart, drew her into his arms to cling for a time while the tattered bond between them rewove. Until now, Sesshomaru had not fully appreciated just how much they needed each other to be whole, and yet...

"Who is he?" Sesshomaru asked. The scent of another dog hung about her faintly, mingled with the iodine tang of salt air and brisk breezes.

"The one I would have wed," she replied, pulling free of his arms and facing him with her chin lifted defiantly, daring him to comment. "I said goodbye today."

"I see."

Tears brightened her moonstone eyes as as she considered this mate whom she had not chosen. " 'I see'? Nothing more?"

"What more would you have?"

"Aren't you even curious? He asked about you. You know, I had to tell him I really don't know anything about you. Isn't it extraordinary that I know nothing about my mate?"

She took a step forward, gazing intently into his eyes. "It's not like I haven't tried. I've been studying you for quite some time. Your mother becomes very nostalgic when she visits the children. She tells me all kinds of stories about you with just the slightest prompting. Your creature, Jaken, is very talkative, too. But, despite all the effort I've put into learning about you, I still don't know you. You don't do what I expect you to do. I can't have that."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed dangerously. He had had his fill of meddlesome bitches and being unpredictable was his best defense from their machinations.

"You will just have to learn to live with it."

"No, I will not," she retorted. "If I am to succeed in our campaign, I must know what to expect from my pack."

"Our campaign? You have not been telling me anything," he snapped.

"Because I don't know what you'll do with the knowledge," she snapped back. She pushed down her rising temper with a few deep breaths, then added, "Look, I know you didn't grow up in a litter, so you just don't know how it works. My... my siblings and I, we know each other intimately; what we think, how we'll react... There are no surprises. I know everything Kazeko will do in any situation, so I can direct her, choose assignments that suit her. But you are not open; I don't know you."

"Mother taught me many things; her greatest lesson was to hold my heart close."

"Even from your mate?"

"Especially from my mate. I saw what became of Father."

"I see. So we find ourselves at an impasse. Is there nothing I can do to earn your confidence?"

"There is one thing."

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Kazeko sniffed testily as she saw a pair of flying figures come over the peak of the nearest mountain. They were back, Inazuma and Sesshomaru. Now, perhaps, this foolishness about males near young pups could be resolved. The Sky Dogs were a strange batch, she mused, there was no disputing that. They indulged far too much in interacting with human mortals; Old Kazan had even sired a half-blood. Perhaps that's where their queer notions came from. Even so, it should not be tolerated. Inazuma was sure to set matters straight.

As soon as they landed, Inazuma embraced her sister briefly in greeting.

"Sister, it's been too long."

"It has indeed," Kazeko replied. "Have you been well? You look stretched."

"It's been a difficult day, that's all," Inazuma said. "I'm fine, but..." She took a breath, then asked, "How is he, my little dog-pup? I want to see him."

"Of course you do. Come in and see. He should be just waking up from a nap," Kazeko said.

"No, I'd rather you brought him out," Inazuma said, glancing at Sesshomaru.

Kazeko's jaw tightened. She gave Sesshomaru a venomous glance, then stalked into the cave, returning a moment later with a silver-gray puppy cuddled in her arms. He yawned and looked around with still-sleepy interest at his visitors.

"Say hello to your mama, Aisoku."

Inazuma stroked him gently and scratched him behind the ears. "He's so small," she said softly.

Kazeko bristled, taking umbrage at the implied criticism. "I've had no opportunity to take him out, as I should have. He was always around." She favored Sesshomaru with another venomous glare; he stared back at her coldly.

"I want to hold him for a moment," Inazuma said. "I haven't seen him since he was born." Kazeko turned her attention back to her charge; she gathered him more securely in her arms and held him out to his mother. Meeting Inazuma from the security of Kazeko's arms was one thing, being handed to her was quite another, in Aisoku's estimation. He squirmed violently in alarm, kicked himself free of Inazuma's arms, then scampered to hide behind Sesshomaru. A moment later, he could be seen peering around from the security of his father's legs.

Kazeko quickly snatched him back up and scolded him softly as she brought him back to his mother.

Sesshomaru's and Inazuma's eyes met.

"He knows my scent," Sesshomaru said. "I'm not a threat."

"And I am," Inazuma mourned. She stroked her son's fur again, then took his head to gaze long into his eyes. She turned to face her mate soberly, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Very well, he's yours," she said with a quavering voice. "Take him and raise him strong. He... he needs experiences and... and challenges to develop fully. And... and you must let him fail. He cannot grow strong until he's failed a few times. We'll... we'll meet again as soon as I can manage it." She kissed a blessing on her son's forehead, then nodded to Kazeko to hand the pup to Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru took his son, nodded to his women, then took to the air, heading south and east like an arrow. The bitches watched him go until he disappeared over the horizon.

"How could you?" Kazeko cried. "He's much too young to be out with a dog."

"Trust, Kazeko," Inazuma whispered vehemently. "If we are to become a pack, I must have his trust. To get it, I must give mine."

"But... it's too soon. What does a dog like him know about infants?"

"Enough, Kazeko. Aisoku is a weanling and his son. He can manage."

"You're just telling yourself that," accused Kazeko.

"What else do I have?" Inazuma whispered desolately.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Forgive me, sister." Kazeko cried, pulling her sister into a close hug to share a good cry. "I'm just worried, too."

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

_Author's Note: _

_I don't even want to talk about how long Inazuma and Sesshomaru stood there just looking at each other. They both have issues, loads of them, but Sesshomaru is the original great non-communicator. I was having a devil of a time getting him to say anything believable. Ugh! Anyway, I think they finally managed to drag the biggest bugaboo in their relationship out into the air. We'll see how Inazuma's sacrifice works out as the story progresses._

_Next, though, back to InuYasha's household..._


	56. Chapter 56 Rin's Choice

Chapter 56 - Rin's Choice

To those living in Kaede's village, life was much as it had always been during the seven years that had passed since InuYasha had brought Kagome there to share his life. Farmers worked in the fields and prayed to Inari and Hachiman to preserve their crops from pestilence and the vagaries of the weather. The villagers lived together as they did in any village, gossiping and meddling in each other's affairs, sometimes helping and often chafing.

The current opinion in the village about their arrangement with InuYasha was that it was mixed blessing. There was no doubt he was effective; brigands and abusive lords were a thing of the past and hostile youkai were effectively held at bay. Even so, he was, himself, innately threatening; he was simply too powerful for anyone but Kagome to control, and many felt the stress of being subject to the whimsical good will of a youkai spirit they did not fully understand.

The observations of the merchants who passed through on their travels were quite different. They saw in the obscure little village a place where food was abundant and the people were sturdy, strong, and uncommonly prosperous. Their remarks became tales which grew into a legend of a magical valley of peace and plenty that was guarded from harm by beneficent spirits.

Most people who shared the story just took some measure of comfort in believing that there could be a land untouched by their normal travails. Many confused the merchants' tales with tales of the Pure Land of the Jodo sect and gave it no more thought. Others, however, drank in the details and dreamed. Most of the dreamers remained dreamers, but a small number of people chose to cut their ties and pursue the dream. Some of them even found their way to the little valley to try their luck anew.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome sighed as she looked up from sorting laundry to check on lesson progress at the table. School-time was deteriorating quickly; Tsuchiya was itching to go out into the fresh, Spring day and was consequently making everyone near him miserable by flicking spit-wads around whenever he thought she was not watching.

"All right, Tsuchiya, put your work away. We'll pick it up again this evening. You and Kourogi may go, but this time don't bring the whole muddy field back with you or you get to scrub it up."

"Yes!" Tsuchiya scrambled to shove his schoolwork roughly away, snatched up his sling and called, "Come on, Kourogi, let's go find the guys."

"Mama?" Toushi looked up, torn between the relief of having Tsuchiya out of her hair and the envy that he was outside and she was not.

"How much do you have left?"

"Um," Toushi inspected her assignment. "Three math problems and the kanji."

"Finish the math, then you may go to the square with Shippo."

"Yay!" Toushi grabbed the abacus and the beads snapped in a fast staccato as she worked through the last math problems. Kagome checked her results, then helped her put away the lessons and other materials.

"Mind Shippo, now, and take Nariko with you," Kagome said as Toushi bolted for the door.

"Awwwww, Mama! She's such a pest!" Toushi protested.

"It won't kill you," Kagome replied. "All the other big sisters do it."

That observation did little to improve Toushi's attitude. She slouched out of the house behind Shippo in a temper, ears back and grumbling, with a prissily smug Nariko close behind.

The house became very quiet after the girls were gone. All that could be heard was the sound of Taiba cooing contentedly in his sling and the soft ticking of Kagome's old alarm clock. It was too quiet in Kagome's opinion. She glanced at Rin, who was staring pensively into the fire with the ripped pants she had been mending laying forgotten on her lap.

"Rin?"

"Oh." Rin started and blinked, then picked up the mending again. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about Sesshomaru-sama and his little son." She glanced briefly at Taiba, a constant reminder of the other baby boy who changed her life. "I wonder how they're doing," she added wistfully.

Kagome's stomach lurched. It was now over a year since Sesshomaru and InuYasha had blasted through the stronghold of the Forest Dogs to rescue Rin and the pup. No one had seen or heard from Sesshomaru since. Kagome was not at all sure they ever would. She and InuYasha had done their best to reassure Rin she always had a place with them, but perhaps she needed to do more. Perhaps it was time to prepare Rin for a life without Sesshomaru. The first order of business would be to make sure she got out of the house more often.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"...and then Miroku Bosatsu turned all of the rice into millet before the eyes of the grasping tax collector and the Temple Dogs came to life and cast all of his soldiers out of the temple and into the streets and chased them all, howling, from the valley never to return!" old Norio intoned solemnly. "And from that time, peace has dwelt in the Blessed Valley and none have suffered from want." He drained his sake and signaled the serving girl for another flask.

The tea merchant, Tadafumi,who was sitting outside of the locals' circle but still within earshot, could not help laughing as Norio's story drew to a close.

"You find it funny, do you?" Norio exclaimed resentfully. "I suppose it never crosses your mind how we suffer from the taxes."

"I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help laughing at the image of Miroku as a Bosatsu." Tadafumi knew Miroku well, and "bosatsu" was an epithet that had never come to mind. Really, the idea was ludicrous.

"What do you mean by this?" cried Torao, one of the local monks. "Miroku Bosatsu is the holy bodhisattva who will remain in the world until all other beings have achieved Nirvana. He is to become the next buddha. Surely if he is to be found on this sorrowful world, it would be there in the Blessed Valley."

"You know," Tadafumi said, "I never really considered Miroku in that light before. He very well might be the Last Buddha, just not for the reasons you think."

"And what reasons are those?" Torao asked.

"Um, let's just say he has an unusual approach to the Eightfold Path and leave it at that."

While Torao frowned in thought over that comment, Norio asked, "But he did turn the rice to millet. That should be proof of his divinity."

"Actually, that's overstating what happened a little. He hid the rice under a handspan of millet. The tax collector never looked any deeper."

"How do you know that?"

"I was there, dropping off my Fall shipment."

All the listeners muttered comments of surprise. This was the first person they had met who claimed to actually have visited the Blessed Valley and what he said actually sounded plausible.

"And the Temple Dog?" a third man asked, testing. "What about it?"

"The InuYasha I know is no more a Temple Dog than the Miroku I know is a bosatsu. He'd get kind of prickly about anyone saying he was."

"But did he cast the soldiers from the temple?"

"That's what I heard. When I brought in the Fall tea shipment the next year, Shizuyo-san told me that the tax collector had tried to bully them out of more rice than they had to give. He roughed up the old miko, Kaede, in the shrine and InuYasha threw him and his soldiers out on their ears, then escorted them all out of the valley."

"Were there really twenty soldiers?"

"That's what Shizuyo-san said, but you know how these things grow with the telling."

Everyone chuckled; of course they knew.

"Have they really kept the tax collectors and the daimyo's armies out ever since?"

"So far, but I think they just got lucky. It's only been a couple of years and the thing that's really saving them is that they're a tiny village in a remote valley that isn't worth a lot of effort."

"Kind of wish our town was that insignificant," grumbled one of the farmers.

The inn's conversation turned now to local affairs. Tadafumi listened for a while; this town was much like most on his route. The local gossip didn't produce any noteworthy news, so he settled his tab with the serving girl and prepared to retire for the night.

He paused at the door to his room; he was being followed.

"May I help you?" he said, turning to see who was there.

The man behind him bobbed a bow. Tadafumi recognized him from the common room; he had been sitting silently in a corner with his sake, just listening as the rest of the men talked. "Your pardon, Tadafumi-san. My name is Kinji. I could not help overhearing earlier. You spoke like one who knows the Blessed Valley well. I want to go there, take with me what's left of my family."

Tadafumi sighed. He met men like this from time to time, men who were so taken in by the glamour of the stories they wouldn't believe this place was just another little village like their own. "The stories are overblown. We're not talking about Amida's Pure Land. It's just a small farming village in a valley in the mountains. It's difficult to get to, so most of the traders don't bother. There's not much traffic and people forget it's there. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes, I'm sure. We're ruined here. I want a fresh start."

"I've found that running seldom solves anything. Most people manage to drag their problems right along with them."

"I'll take my chances. Like I said, there's nothing for us here anymore."

"Very well, I'll guide you there, but I can't promise you anything after that. How you fare will be up to you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few days later, Tadafumi led his charges to the foot of the trail that led into the mountains to the so-called Blessed Valley. Kinji had brought with him his brother's wife Yoneko and his nephews Shoji and Shunji and whatever of their possessions could be packed on their backs or into a cart that they collectively wrestled along the road. Over the course of the trip, it had become clear that there were widely differing opinions among Kinji's relations about the advisability of this trip.

At age nine, Shunji found it an exciting adventure to go to the much-fabled Blessed Valley. He pestered Tadafumi for more stories at every opportunity and especially wanted to see the holy spirits that guarded the valley. His mother, Yoneko, on the other hand, was not at all pleased to be moving away from everyone and everything she had known all her life. She grew progressively more agitated as the trip progressed and broke down frequently in crying jags as she panicked over how they would make their way among uncaring strangers. Shoji, at sixteen, found himself torn between his mother's anxieties and his brother's enthusiasm. There was a girl back home he hadn't wanted to leave and he was not at all sure his uncle was right about starting over in a new place being their best option. Still, it was hard not to get caught in Shunji's buoyant curiosity about this much-storied land.

The original plan had been for Tadafumi to lend Kinji a pack horse to help him get the cart up the pass. Unfortunately, along the way, one of the horses had gone lame and Tadafumi had been forced to stable it in Masahiro's village and distribute its load among his remaining horses. There had been no horses available for hire; every beast in the area was employed in preparing the fields for planting. Now, they stood at the foot of the pass and looked up the trail to see what lay ahead.

The spring snowmelt had swollen the little river that drained the valley into a raging torrent; water roared down the ravine, through the boulders and trees and lapped close to the trail itself. Mist billowed through the air, obscuring their view and making the trail slick and treacherous.

"How far?" Kinji shouted over the roar of the water.

"About a mile, but it's steep," Tadafumi shouted back. "This is why I use pack horses."

"Well, there's four of us. I expect we can manage," Kinji replied. "Still, we'd best get going if we want to make it before nightfall."

They started up the trail, slipping on the mist-slicked rocks and groaning their way through the muddy bogs that sucked at their feet and bound the wheels of the cart. It was painfully slow going; each mud hole caused a wrestling match with the cart and required a long period of panting recovery after it was free before they could tackle the next obstacle.

During one of these rest breaks, Tadafumi said, "Tell you what, I'll push on ahead and see if I can get a couple of people to come back with a horse to help you out. I shouldn't be long."

"Thank you," Kinji replied. "We'd appreciate that."

Tadafumi continued up the trail, picking his way carefully over the rocks and around the fallen trees. He had never seen the river this full, nor the trail in such bad condition. Normally, by this time of year, InuYasha had led a crew in to clear the trail of obstructions. Had something happened to the village? Tadafumi suppressed a surge of fear.

The ravine narrowed and grew steeper. Water roared past him on his left, carrying branches and other flotsam that flashed past him at a dizzying pace. He rounded a bend and found the trail was covered for a stretch by ankle-deep rushing water. The horses balked and Tadafumi was forced to stop.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A shrill whistle sliced the air over the roar of the water and InuYasha lowered his sword. Again.

"What the fuck is it this time?" he bellowed downstream. Gods. He thought they wanted this logjam cleared, but...

"There's someone on the trail!" Eiichi reported.

"Well, get him out of there!" InuYasha returned his gaze to the cluster of logs and boulders that was currently damming the river. If he cut just there, it ought to release the jam. If he ever got a chance to do it.

Earlier in the winter, there had been a very heavy snowstorm, and several avalanches had roared from the mountain peaks into the narrow side ravines that fed the valley river. Later, as Spring began, a day of warm rain had melted the built-up snow enough to start flash floods, which had carried all of the debris from the avalanches into the river, where it had locked into a massive logjam at the head of the gorge that was now threatening to flood the entire valley upstream.

InuYasha glanced through the mist beyond the jam to see two men emerge from the gorge leading a pack train.

Boulders shifted suddenly, pushed by the many hands of the river god. A surge of water flooded through the newly opened gap, the interlocked logs groaned and branches snapped, sending sharp retorts over the roar of the water. The water started thundering through in pulses as the jam spat out chunks of debris, then closed down again. Damn, it was getting unstable.

"Are you clear?" he yelled back for confirmation as he let his youki gyre build again. "The river god is getting impatient!" Power started swirling around the sword in anticipation of his strike.

"No!" Eiichi called back. "There's a family with a handcart still down there!"

White, foaming fingers of water burst through the jam, clawing at the rocks and shoving against the tangled tree trunks. The river god was clearly not waiting for him any longer.

"Shit." InuYasha sheathed his sword and yelled to Eiichi, "Get everyone clear! That jam is about to blow! I'm going after those people downstream!" He sprinted along the top of the ravine, then jumped across to ricochet his way down the cliffs. The mist was so heavy, he could scarcely see below. All he could smell was icy water and battered vegetation; all he could hear was the roar of the river. Where were they? Where? Where? Where? _Where_?

There! He caught a flash of a red print kerchief and bounced off one last boulder to drop like a bolt beside them.

"OK, folks, party's over. You're getting out now. Get as high up the bank as you can. I'll be right back," he snapped at Kinji and Shoji as he grabbed Yoneko and Shunji and disappeared into the mist.

Shoji and Kinji gaped after the red-robed apparition, heedless of their danger.

"What... What was that?" Kinji gasped. Then, he and Shoji tried to shove the cart up the bank.

Thump! The apparition landed beside them again, red clothes, white hair and a mouthful of fangs that was yelling, "Come on! We don't have time for that!" It snatched out for them, seized Kinji's shirt, but missed Shoji, who had flinched back, slipped on the rocks and fallen into the river.

"Shit!" InuYasha grabbed Kinji and threw him up the cliff, then took off downstream after Shoji. He followed, leaping boulder to boulder, as Shoji slid down the channel, slamming against rocks and plunging under the surface at times to bob back into sight a short time later farther downstream. InuYasha finally caught up with him and fished him, half-drowned, out of an eddy. He glanced back up the river as he heaved Shoji over his shoulder, and leaped smoothly to the top of the gorge as the surging wall of water caught up with him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"We can't manage without the cart! It had our tools! Our altar! My great grand-mother's mirror!" That was Mother, crying as she bemoaned the loss of all of her treasured possessions.

"It's just stuff! There wasn't a damned thing on that cart you can't live without. I lived most of my life owning nothing but the clothes on my back." Shoji did not recognize that voice. He opened his eyes to take a look. What he found instead was a pretty miko leaning over him inspecting his face.

"Ah. I see you're awake. I'm Kagome. What's your name?"

"Uh... Shoji."

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked as she cleaned blood from his face.

"Ummm..." Thinking made his head hurt. He closed his eyes to try to recall the day.

"You just left it! You never even tried!" Somewhere in the background, Mother was getting hysterical.

"Look, woman, you were damned lucky I got you out. By the time I fished your boy out of the water, your junk belonged to the river god, and I don't expect he's giving any of it back."

Oh. The river. A mad swirl of icy, rushing water, rocks, and mist, surged into his mind. Pain. Aching bones from the frigid water, water in his nose, water in his mouth, water in his lungs. Being tossed like a rag doll against jagged rocks and buried logs. Knowing he could not survive. How had he survived? "I... uh... I fell in the river."

"Oh, we're ruined. Ruined!" Mother was weeping now.

"You're alive, damn it! A little gratitude might be nice for a change."

"InuYasha, will you give it a rest?" the miko, Ka-something, said over her shoulder. "I need to set this boy's leg and I can't do it alone."

"Fine." A new face looked down at him, the apparition Shoji remembered, with white hair, annoyed amber eyes and a fang-filled mouth. "How about you, kid? Are you glad you're alive?"

"InuYasha!" the miko snapped in exasperation, "Enough, already!"

"What!"

"I'm sure everyone will be properly grateful after a hot meal and a good night's sleep," the miko said with exaggerated patience. "Can we please focus on getting this boy's leg set and splinted? You can go sulk afterwards."

InuYasha's white hair flared out round his head, his fangs showed through an angry scowl, his ears (*ears? What kind of ears are those?*) lay plastered against his head as he glared at the miko. "Now that's pushing it!"

"Oh, really." she said pointedly.

"Yeah!"

"Prove it."

They locked eyes for a long moment; then InuYasha took a deep breath and unbristled. "Right. Fine. Let's set this leg."

"Thank you."

Shoji was already muddle-headed from his ordeal; setting his leg pushed him back over the edge into unconsciousness.

When he awoke again with a dully throbbing leg, he was in a quiet, dimly-lit house; Mother was weeping softly somewhere behind him with Shunji consoling her as best he could while Uncle Kinji talked quietly to a woman with a brisk, cheerful voice.

"Aiko-san, just what is this InuYasha? I've never seen anything like it."

"He's a hanyou. His mother was a human woman, just like us, and his father was a powerful dog youkai."

So that's what a hanyou looked like. Shoji had heard stories of such things, but they had always taken place very far from where he lived, in some half-real place beyond the mountains or over the sea. He never really had been sure how much to believe.

"And your miko, is she his keeper? She must be very powerful to control something like that."

Aiko laughed, then said, "That's not how it works at all. InuYasha-sama and Kagome-sama are married with four children and, as far as I can tell, are pretty equally matched. They're a team, not a keeper and a slave."

Shoji snorted softly. Come to think of it, that little squabble earlier had sounded like a bickering married couple. Who'd have thought?

"I thought mikos had to be maidens," Uncle Kinji remarked.

"Kagome-sama seems to be a special case. Maybe it's because she married someone not wholly human. Anyway, it's just as well, with those children..."

"What about them?" Uncle Kinji asked in alarm.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough," Aiko said cryptically. "They're not bad, but they do keep you hopping."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shoji's new life developed around him as he chafed through his convalescence. They were still lodging with the brew-mistress, Aiko, whose house was in the middle of town facing the square. Uncle Kinji had presented his petition to join the village to the council. They had no objections; there were no other potters in the area and their wares would be welcome. Uncle Kinji and Shunji now spent their days surveying the banks of the river and its tributaries for sources of good quality clay and laying out the foundation of the new anagama kiln. Yoneko put Shoji to work replacing their tools. He sat on Aiko's porch with his broken leg propped up and whittled shaping tools and assembled glazing brushes while he watched the village life unfold before him.

It proved to be an excellent way to meet the locals. People who were passing by often stopped to inquire about his leg, then stayed to inspect the tools he was making and ask how they worked. One thing often led to another and he soon had a contact for firewood and the mason engaged in helping them build a potting wheel. He bartered deals for pickling jars and casseroles in exchange for helping Kinji and Shoji construct the kiln and the shop.

He was sitting on the porch, as usual, one fine morning, when a young woman and a little girl wandered down the street from the direction of InuYasha's hill. The woman was pretty, so Shoji found himself watching their progress. They stopped first at Miyako's stall and exchanged a small bottle for an array of spring greens. While Miyako and the woman chatted, the little girl inspected the action on the street in boredom. A short time later, a mother hen with her brood emerged from behind a chicken coop.

"Chickies!" the girl squealed excitedly, then ran toward them for a closer look.

The mother hen took offense and charged the girl, feathers fluffed out and wings flapping. The girl pulled up short, then bolted straight at Shoji with the hen in hot pursuit. Shoji couldn't help laughing as the girl scrambled past him to hide among a cluster of barrels on the end of the porch. The hen stopped at the edge of the porch stairs, fluffed her feathers one more time, then trotted back to her brood. A moment later, the girl popped out from behind the barrels and fixed him with a piercing, golden glare.

"It isn't funny!" she declared indignantly.

Shoji realized with a start that this was one of the demon-lord's children. That family wielded a lot of influence in the village, so it seemed politic to appease the child.

"You know, you're right," he said seriously. "I got chased by a hen once when I was your age. That hen seemed awfully big and ferocious when I was that little."

"Yeah." Now mollified, the child relaxed and grew curious. "You're from the new family, aren't you? What's your name?"

"I'm Shoji."

"Shoji-san...," she repeated, setting it in her memory. "I'm Toushi. What are you making?"

"This is called a crane's neck," Shoji said, holding up the tool so she could see it better. "We use it to make the inside of bottles."

"Oh. How does it work?"

"You know how bottles have skinny little necks?"

Toushi nodded.

"Well, you slide this down into the neck of the bottle, then use this part to push out the inside of the bottle and make it all smooth and round."

"Wow. Can I try it sometime?" she asked.

"Um.."

By now, the young woman with Toushi had finished her conversation and had rejoined the child. She put a restraining hand on Toushi's shoulder, then said to Shoji, "I'm sorry. She gets very forward sometimes."

"That's all right," Shoji replied. "She doesn't mean any harm."

"What's so forward about asking to try the crane's neck?" Toushi interrupted.

"These people are trying to start up their business right now," Rin explained. "They may not have time to play with you."

"Oh, but Rin-chan..." Toushi protested.

"If the Lord's daughter is interested, I'm sure we can find a way to let her try," Shoji said earnestly.

"Papa's a lord?" Toushi asked in surprise while Rin protested, "Are you sure about this? You must have so much you need to set up. How can you spare the time...?"

"I'm positive," Shoji said firmly. "It will be great for business if people see her taking an interest as we get running." He turned back to Toushi and told her, "I bet we can be ready for you in about a week. Don't forget to bring Rin-san with you when you come."

"OK."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A prospect as exciting as making a pot was not going to be forgotten. One week later, Toushi arrived at the new shop on the far edge of town and peered over the fence into the covered yard to watch Kinji and Shoji test the new wheel.

"Give that a try," Kinji said, tapping the leveling wedge in a little farther, then putting down his mallet and sitting back.

Shoji kicked the wheel with his good leg and tried forming the mass of clay in its middle. The clay spun smoothly under his hands as he flattened it then pressed a hole in the center and started raising the walls of a jug.

"That's got it. We're looking good."

"Whoa. Is that magic?" Toushi asked, wide-eyed as the jug formed in front of her eyes.

"Hey! Look who's here!" Shoji said, looking up at his audience. "So, where's Rin-san?"

"She's coming," Toushi replied. "She's just really slow."

"I am not!" Rin laughed as she joined Toushi at the fence. "You ran the whole way. Guess who couldn't stop talking about this all week long?" she added to Shoji.

"Is that so?" Shoji teased.

Toushi flushed.

"So, are you ready to give it a try?"

"Yeah!" Toushi clambered over the fence and ran to stand in front the wheel.

"Come here and sit in front of me. We'll do the first one together."

"OK!"

Shoji lifted Toushi onto the stool in front of him and mashed down the test wad of clay to start over.

"Awww," Toushi protested.

"We'll make a new one," Shoji laughed. "First put your hands around the mound like this. Do you feel it spinning?"

"Yeah."

"Is it lopsided or smooth?"

"It's kinda lopsided."

"OK, so we need to push it until it runs smooth. That's called centering. Let's do it." Shoji and Toushi pushed on the clay until they had a squat, smoothly spinning cylinder in front of them. "Now, you put your thumb in the center."

Toushi put her thumb near the center and her hand wobbled around in a circle. Shoji guided her hand to the exact center. "It's got to be right in the center. Feel that? It's just spinning smoothly?"

Toushi nodded.

"OK, now we push." Shoji put his thumb over hers and together they pushed a well in the clay big enough to accommodate their hands. "Not too deep. The pot needs to have a bottom."

Toushi giggled.

A moment later, there was a squat bowl with thick sides spinning in front of them.

"Now, we raise the wall. Thumbs inside, fingers outside, we squeeze gently and pull up." Shoji held Toushi's hand in place and pulled up the wall, tall and thin. "Now, we give it a little shape." He pushed in the top of the pot to narrow the opening, then pushed down on top to give it a lip. "And that's a jar. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Wow!"

Toushi's eyes were big with delight. If it weren't for the eagerly pricked dog's ears, Shoji would have thought he had just another excited little kid in his lap. Maybe these hanyou, or whatever, weren't so different after all. Shrugging, he pulled up the cutting wire he had draped over a peg on the stool's leg and slid it under the newly-made jar to free it from the wheel. He got up and hobbled to place the new pot on the drying shelf, then he asked Toushi, "So are you ready to make one all by yourself?"

"Can I?"

"Sure. Maybe a tea mug for your mother?"

"Can I do one for Papa instead?"

"Oh, you're Daddy's girl, are you?" Shoji laughed.

"Yeah!" Toushi beamed.

Shoji pulled a small wad of clay out of the bin and slapped it onto the wheel, then he limped to the fence to stand next to Rin.

"It's so little," Toushi said, looking at her mound in disappointment.

"It's a tea mug, remember? You don't need much to make a mug. And - your hands are little. It'll be easier for you to handle this."

"Oh." Toushi looked at the little mound critically, considering what Shoji had said.

Shoji and Rin watched with quiet amusement while Toushi turned the wheel about to look at her clay from all sides.

"What do you do first?" Shoji prompted.

"Center it," Toushi answered firmly. She stretched to kick the wheel into motion then started to wrestle the mound into position.

"Not bad," Shoji said quietly to Rin. "She remembered."

"She's really smart," Rin answered. "She catches on really fast."

Toushi may have understood what she needed to do, but actually doing it was another story. During the time she spent pushing and prodding the clay into the center of the wheel, Shoji had found out Rin was a family friend of InuYasha's household and that she was unattached.

"That's hard!" Toushi protested when she finally decided her clay was 'good enough' to continue.

"Actually, that is the hardest part," Shoji replied with great solemnity while giving Rin an impish grin.

Rin hid her laugh behind her hand, but her eyes were dancing.

"What's next?" Shoji asked Toushi.

"My thumb goes in the middle." Toushi stretched down to get the wheel moving again, then sat up with a determined look and pressed into the center of the mound.

"That's right."

Shoji and Rin watched a wobbly circle form in the mound of clay as Toushi sought the true center of the wheel. Frowning in concentration, with the tip of her tongue peeking from the corner of her mouth, she adjusted her hand back and forth until her thumb was over the pivot point and dug in. The well that appeared was off center by a small amount, so that when she raised the wall of the mug, the clay on one side gave out before the opposite side. She tried mashing the high side down; it curled out. She pushed it back, it curved up again, still too high.

She slowed the wheel and turned it gently, looking at her creation from all sides.

"Do you like it?" Shoji asked.

Toushi examined it critically. It didn't look anything like she had imagined, but it had a certain lopsided charm. "Yeah. There's room for Papa's nose if he holds it right."

"You know, you're right. And here we've been making mugs wrong for years. Maybe we should fix that," Shoji replied solemnly while Rin giggled. "Let me put your mug with the other drying pots and then, how would you ladies like a tour?"

"Oh, Shoji-san, will your leg be able to handle that?" Rin asked in great concern.

"I have to be careful, but Kagome-sama said my leg would heal faster if I worked it a little."

He led the way out of the pottery yard and toward a large open shed where Kinji was directing the placement of bricks for the new kiln. The kiln, although unfinished, was already an impressively large, complicated structure. Built on a slope, it started with a firebox at the bottom, which led into a large firing chamber, then narrowed at the top of the slope into a flue leading to a chimney. At the moment, the foundation and the walls of the firebox and the chamber where the pottery was stacked during firing were partially constructed.

"How's it going, Uncle?" Shoji asked.

"Well, we sure could use your help in here! We're not exactly building a simple wall." Kinji replied. "You know what the firebox needs to look like and how the chamber attaches to the flue. I need to supervise every brick going in here."

"Yeah, I know, but the last thing I need right now is to trip over a form board while carrying a load of bricks. That could put me out for another month, at least."

"Speaking of forms, we're about ready to build the form for the chamber. I do need you for that. We should have all the materials by this afternoon." The arching teardrop shape of the firing chamber needed to be correct, or the flame flow through the kiln would not penetrate to the back of the chamber to glaze the entire load. Uncle Kinji was understandably concerned about this part of the construction.

"OK. I'll be there."

"It's so big," Rin said. "How does it work?"

"Actually, this is a little one," Shoji explained. "The one back home was loads bigger and there were five families of potters all sharing it. We're just one family, so we don't have enough people to handle a big one. The thing is, a firing takes at least three days, and can go even longer for the best results. People need to man the fire the entire time, day and night, so it helps to have a lot of people involved. There's just the four of us, and whoever we can get to help us out, so we're building a kiln small enough that we can handle it, but big enough to fire a reasonable amount of wares per round. We start with a small fire here at the base, just outside the fire box and let the draft develop into kiln. We slowly build up the fire and guide the wood into the front here to gradually build up the heat and let the ashes cover the pots. We keep getting it hotter and hotter until flames are coming out the chimney, then leave it there for a few days, then we shut it down and cover all the air ports and let it cool down gradually over a few more days, then open it up and see what happened. That's the exciting part, when you see what the fire has done to your pot. It's never the same thing twice. Different wood, different weather, the order and way you load the pots, it all affects how the pots turn out."

"When will it be ready?" Toushi asked. "I want to see what happens to my mug."

"That's going to take at least two more weeks and probably longer. We still need to finish building the kiln and make a load more pots. We can't put in anything that's too damp either. It'll blow up if it's too wet when the fire hits it."

"Oh!" The prospect was alarming. "That won't happen to my mug, will it?"

"We'll do everything we can to make sure it's ready before we fire it. If it does blow up, we'll let you make another one. Anyway, I need to get back to the wheel if we're going to have enough to fire by the time the kiln is ready."

Kagome joined them as Toushi and Rin chatted and watched Shoji form a casserole.

"Good morning," she said from the far side of the fence.

"Hi, Mama!" Toushi said, turning around to wave at her mother.

"My, aren't you the little mud-dumpling?" Kagome chuckled, looking at Toushi's, splattered clothes and smeared face. "How's the leg doing, Shoji-kun?"

"Pretty good. It gets kind of achy at the end of the day, though."

"Let me have a look."

Kagome came through the gate and Shoji hopped away from the wheel to a bench at the side of the yard so she could check him out. Toushi and Rin joined them to offer Shoji support.

Yoneko came out of the shop to hear Kagome's assessment of Shoji's leg. Kagome felt down the length of the bone, then said, "Everything is still nice and straight. It feels warm and just a little swollen, but I think we're just seeing increased blood flow to aid the healing. Put cool compresses on it at the end of the day to ease the swelling. I'll check again in a couple of days."

Yoneko said, "We apologize for being such a burden on this village. We were very foolish to leave our town and impose our misfortunes on your charity."

Toushi looked directly into Yoneko's eyes and studied her intently for a moment, then said earnestly, "Really, it's OK. People like you."

Yoneko blanched. First, there was that odd sensation of being read like a book, then the child says this, as if she saw Yoneko's carefully hidden insecurities. How did she know? How could she?

"Toushi..." Kagome said sternly to the girl as Yoneko withdrew back the shop in a dither.

"What did I do?" Toushi asked.

"You frightened her."

"But..."

"People don't like it when you look into them," Kagome reminded her solemnly.

"But... It was right there. I hardly looked at all... And, she's so worried," Toushi protested. A moment later, she added, "I just wanted to help," in a small, crushed voice.

"I know," Kagome sighed. "She's new here. Let's give her some time to get used to you and what you can see."

Toushi sighed and looked at the shop door unhappily. "I really did just want to help."

"Let's go home, shall we? These people have a lot of work to do and we're sort of in the way."

"That's such a spooky child," Yoneko remarked to Shoji after they left, "Are you sure Rin is the girl for you? I know she's well placed, but still..."

"Mother," Shoji sighed, "You've been on me since we got here to find a good girl to marry. Most of the girls here already have a marriage arranged for them. The only other available girl is that Kaou's daughter. Do you really want that?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By the time the kiln was ready for its first firing, the whole village had become enthralled with the operation. Nearly everyone had had a hand in its construction or had watched with interest the growing collection of pots on the drying shelves and the accumulation of an immense and varied stockpile of firewood beside the kiln shed. After the kiln was built and the mortar cured, all the pots were moved into the maw of the beast, now to be seen through the mouth of the firebox in carefully arranged configurations on shelves throughout the firing chamber.

Kinji consulted Kaede for an auspicious day for fire-related activities to commence the firing, then assembled crews to help. When that day arrived, Kinji's family, and all their helpers gathered before the mouth of the kiln at dawn for a short, but fervent, invocation to Ebisu and Ho-Masubi for success. Soon afterward, Kinji had a small pinewood fire kindled on the hearthstones laid in front of the firebox and its smoke swirled around the mouth of the kiln. Eventually, as the sun rose higher, the bulk of the smoke drifted into the firebox and began to slowly and gently filter through the pots and out the chimney. Kinji kept the fire deliberately slow and smoky throughout that day and well into the next. Ashes drifted and clung to the pots, smoke swirled in arabesques around them as the fire was guided closer to the kiln until it was fully in the firebox. Kinji started adding hardwoods to the pine, raising the temperature gradually. Now the kiln became a monster, voracious and blazing hot. By day, the smoke billowed through town and across the fields, by night flames roared in the firebox, through the chamber and shot ever higher from the chimney. The pots glowed an incandescent orange when viewed through the spy holes and the wood supply evaporated as men slaved in shifts to keep the fire fed. Six days later, Kinji declared it time to commence the next stage. The flue and mouth of the firebox were quickly sealed closed, and a long period of waiting commenced while the kiln gradually cooled.

All throughout this firing, Toushi dragged whoever would go with her to the kiln to watch its progress. More often than not, this person was Rin, who spent many hours chatting with Shoji and often brought a basket of snacks and cool drinks with her to refresh the crew. The visits continued through the cooling period, as Toushi impatiently waited to see her mug reappear. Shoji and Rin laughed and flirted, teasing Toushi with dire predictions of what she would find when the kiln was opened.

A week later, the long-awaited day arrived. With another invocation to the gods of fire and labor, the firebox was unsealed and the pots revealed. Skinny, little Shunji clambered in through the firebox and helped open the kiln from the inside, then started handing out the completed pots. The drying shelves were soon once again burdened with pots which now shimmered in varied shades of soft green, rich orange and charred black.

Toushi bounced excitedly on the sidelines, restrained by Rin, who kept reminding her she must wait until the kiln was unloaded and she had permission to enter, or she might break something. To forestall probable catastrophe, Shoji brought the mug to her when it came out of the kiln.

"Let's go rinse off the last of the ash, shall we?" he said, guiding them to a bucket. Toushi swished mug around in the bucket and Shoji dried it with a rag and handed it to her. "There, what do you think?"

"Ohhhh!" She turned it around and inspected it on all sides. "It's so pretty! Come on, Rin-chan, let's go home and show Papa!"

"I guess I'll see you later," Rin called back to Shoji as Toushi dragged her off.

Toushi was very disappointed that InuYasha wasn't home when she got back. Kagome confiscated the mug until he got back so it wouldn't get broken, then shooed Toushi outdoors.

"I hope you feel like tea," Kagome remarked drolly when he did arrive.

"Hmm?"

"I expect you're going to be drinking a lot of it."

"Umm..."

While InuYasha was wracking his brains trying to figure out why he wanted tea so desperately, Toushi burst through the door crying, "Papa! Papa! Guess what! Your mug is ready!"

"Oh!"

While Kagome laughed at his consternation, Toushi got down the mug, made her mother fill it with tea, then thrust it into Inuyasha's hands. There was no hope of getting a word in edgewise while she rattled off its virtues, described her favorite part of the fire-glaze, pointed out the special spot for his nose, (he hastily turned it to the correct orientation before she could slosh tea all over him doing it herself), and told the story of how Shoji-san said since it was a such a good idea, they should make more mugs with nose-notches. As soon as he finished the first helping, she snatched the mug back and got a reload, and then thrust back in his hands. Kagome finally rescued him after the third helping by sending Toushi outdoors to call Tsuchiya home for dinner.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shoji met Rin and Nariko at the base of the steps on market day, like he had regularly since his leg had healed enough to allow extended walking.

"Hi, Shoji-san!" Nariko called cheerfully, waving at him as she bounced down the last three steps.

"Good morning, Nariko-chan. What are we shopping for today?"

"Carrots and cabbage and daikon and eggs and fish and peas and beans and spinach," Nariko recited, jumping excitedly with each item on the list.

"Wow! That's a lot," Shoji remarked with mock seriousness.

"Yeah!" Nariko agreed happily.

"OK, let's do it," Shoji said. He took Rin's basket and added, "Shall we go see Miyako-san first?"

"Yeah!" Nariko ran ahead to the first garden plot as Rin and Shoji strolled along behind, Shoji carrying Rin's basket.

"Does she have to come?" Shoji asked Rin.

"Absolutely," Rin replied. "She knows immediately what's at its peak."

"Hm. Maybe I should have her pick our produce, too. I'm not very good at it. Uh, Rin-san, is... is InuYasha-sama going to be home this evening?"

"Yes, I think so," Rin said. "Why?"

"As you know, we've had a successful firing, so we've payed off our debts and our shop is beginning to do well. If it's agreeable to you and your guardians, my family would like to offer you a marriage proposal. Would it please you to be my wife?"

"You... your wife? Oh!" Rin stopped in her tracks, her heart fluttering. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she nodded quickly. "Yes. Yes, I'm honored."

"You honor us. We'll come this evening to make the formal proposal, family to family."

"Come on!" Nariko called impatiently from Miyako's vegetable patch. "You're taking forever!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A small procession left Kinji's house in the late afternoon, Kinji at its head carrying a lacquered box, followed by Yoneko with a covered basket, then Shoji in what currently passed for his best clothes. They made their way through the village then up the steps to InuYasha's house and presented themselves humbly before the porch.

Rin peeped out the door to see who was there, then withdrew back into the house with bright eyes and flaming cheeks. Kagome appeared a moment later and invited them to come in.

Screens had been set up to block the kitchen clutter from view and make the hearth area into a receiving room for guests. Cushions were set in two rows on the floor near the fire with a low table between them, InuYasha sat frowning impressively on one on the far side of the table and Kagome joined him on another as she bade Shoji's family to please sit on the near cushions. Rin, still blushing vividly, came around the screen with a tray of sweets and tea which she set on the table, then she sat on the final cushion, quivering with excitement.

Kinji ceremoniously offered the lacquered box to InuYasha, who took it cautiously, then opened it slowly. Inside was a beautifully made tea set with the signature glaze of Kinji's shop.

"It's lovely!" Kagome exclaimed. "I'm so glad you found good clay. Will you be ready for the Spring Fair next month? Everyone goes there."

"We should have enough ready for a small display," Kinji said modestly.

"Wonderful. When everyone sees this, I'm sure your business will take flight."

"Your confidence is encouraging, Kagome-sama," Kinji replied. "It's a frightening thing starting over in a strange place, and you've helped us so much in getting settled. We truly appreciate it."

"How could we do anything else? It's good to see you doing well now."

"Thank you. We had a second reason for visiting today."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I hope you've had the opportunity to get to know my nephew, Shoji. He is of age and is quite proficient in the potter's art. I expect him to be a cornerstone of our business as we grow and his prospects are good. He is very taken with your ward, Rin, and he asked me to help arrange a marriage."

Rin flushed again and looked through her eyelashes at Shoji who was sitting across from her. She was trying very hard to sit still and retain decorum, but she was clearly pleased and excited. Shoji gazed back at her, also blushing from the awkwardness of having his feelings laid out before Rin's guardians.

InuYasha, on the other hand, did not look pleased. He tugged Kagome's sleeve to get her attention, then said brusquely, "Kagome, we gotta talk."

Kagome looked sharply at him, annoyed that he was destroying Rin and Shoji's moment. "Can't it wait?"

"No, it can't."

Great. Just great. Kagome mustered her thoughts, looking for a graceful way to ease Shoji's family out of the house without offending them. "I... uh... it appears there a few details we need to discuss. Don't mistake us, we are very honored by the proposal and uh... You see, Rin's situation with us is rather unusual and... well... um..."

"Yes, I see," Kinji said coolly. "Pardon our intrusion." Together, the family rose and bowed stiffly and stepped toward the door.

"No, it's not an intrusion," Kagome said earnestly as they retreated. "Really, we are honored that you think so highly of Rin. We... we'll speak to you soon. After we've talked." She flashed another glare at InuYasha, who looked grimly back at her while Rin watched them go from the porch, choking back tears at the dashing of her romance.

Kagome left the porch and dragged InuYasha into their bedroom for a hopefully private talk. "What's the matter with you?" she hissed furiously, pushing the sliding door closed behind them. "He's a sweet boy from a nice family. She could do a lot worse."

"This is not going to be pretty when Sesshomaru comes back." InuYasha growled back.

"If Sesshomaru comes back," Kagome retorted. "He's not given any of us a thought for the better part of two years as far as I can tell."

"Years don't mean anything to Sesshomaru." InuYasha said. " He'll be back, and he won't be happy."

"That makes two of us," Kagome snapped. "What's Rin supposed to do, put her life on hold for a month, a year, ten years even, until Sesshomaru gets around to gracing us with his presence? He's going to have to come to grips with human life spans sometime. Rin is grown up now; she can make her own decisions. She should not have to watch her life fade away waiting for him."

"Yeah, you just have fun telling him that." InuYasha replied caustically.

"Don't worry, I will."

"You're... You're serious," InuYasha said incredulously, startled at her grim tone.

"Yes, I am."

"Kagome, this is Sesshomaru we're talking about. He'll rip you to shreds. He might just rip the whole village apart if he's pissed enough."

"But... Surely Rin deserves a chance to choose her own life."

"Honestly, Kagome, how many of us actually get to do that? Most times, you just get what you get."

"That's certainly true if you don't even try," she said bitterly. She sighed heavily, then said, "We're putting the cart before the horse right now, anyway. We need to find out what Rin wants before we go any further."

Rin was huddled up by the fire, crying, when Kagome and InuYasha returned to the hearth.

"You heard some of that, didn't you?" Kagome said with a resigned sigh.

Rin nodded through her tears.

"Rin-chan," Kagome said earnestly to the girl. "InuYasha thinks there's going to be trouble from Sesshomaru over this marriage proposal. In all truth, we have no idea where Sesshomaru is, what he's doing and when, if ever, he will return. Things have changed, he has his own family and a whole new set of demands on him, so who knows what he's going to do? You have a marriage proposal from a nice young man before you right now. You need to choose: you can risk Sesshomaru's anger and and marry your young man and start a life here and now, or you can wait for Sesshomaru with no guarantees of how long it will take for him to turn up. It could be tomorrow, or you might be an old woman when he finally shows up. Either way, InuYasha and I will back your choice. Do you understand?"

Rin nodded tearfully.

"Good enough. We won't talk about it any more until tomorrow, then you can tell us all of your thoughts."

Rin nodded again.

In the morning, after Kagome had shooed the children out of the house for a while, she and InuYasha put a cup of tea before Rin and Kagome asked, "Are you ready to talk?"

"Yes," Rin whispered. "I... I want to find Sesshomaru-sama. I like Shoji and his family and I'd like to get married, but I should have Sesshomaru-sama's approval first."

"I do have one idea, "InuYasha replied. "If anyone can find him, it's Karimaru.

"It's a good thought," Kagome said, "but how long do we give Karimaru to find him. Kinji's family isn't going to wait forever for an answer. What do you think, Rin?"

"Um, how about a month?" Rin asked.

"A month sounds good," Kagome replied. "I'll go talk to Kinji-san and explain everything to him."

"And I'll go flush out Karimaru. Where's Kourogi?" InuYasha added.

"Out in the fields with Tsuchiya, I expect," Kagome said.

A short time later, InuYasha caught up with Tsuchiya and Kourogi in the millet fields. He took Kourogi with him into a forest clearing, then told her, "All right, Kourogi, call your relatives in."

The brindle dog looked up at InuYasha and whined dubiously.

"Don't give me that. We both know they're out there. I'd do the same if it were my daughter."

Kourogi sighed in resignation, sat down and howled a melodious call to the forest.

A few minutes later, a young man with green eyes and brown hair streaked with black stepped from the forest. Seeing InuYasha, he gave Kourogi a stern look. She crouched low on her belly and whined contritely.

"I asked her to call you in," InuYasha explained. "I need a favor. I'm looking for some help tracking down Sesshomaru."

"Sesshomaru!" The young man's eyebrows rose in surprise. "No one has heard anything about him since he vanished after blasting through our compound. There hasn't even been any gossip."

"Shit," InuYasha grimaced. "Look, here's the deal. Sesshomaru's girl, Rin, has just received a marriage proposal and she want his approval to go ahead. Me, I just don't want to have him come blasting in all pissed off 'cause no one told him anything."

"Hmm. We're not exactly on his good list right now, but I can at least make sure the word gets out through the Courts. Maybe someone will cross his path in his travels and pass on the message."

" 'Maybe.' Great, just great. Look, one way or another, we're going ahead with this marriage in a month. We can't wait forever."

"I understand. I'll see what I can do." He nodded a farewell to InuYasha, then turned to Kourogi. "And you - you be a good brat."

Kourogi gave him a cheerful, toothy grin.

InuYasha looked at Kourogi as her brother vanished into the woods. "You know, you seem to have quite the reputation at home, too. Why do I get the feeling I'm the dumb sucker who got the problem child dumped on him?"

Kourogi looked at him with injured innocence.

"You know, you're not fooling anyone."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While InuYasha parlayed with the Forest Dogs, Kagome rooted through her supply of ointments, elixirs, tonics and herbs, looking for a suitable gift to take with her as a peace offering.

"Rin-chan, does Shoji-kun's family have any complaints I might have a remedy for, or are there any herbs they like particularly?"

"Umm, they do get very dry, chapped hands working the clay," Rin offered.

"Ah! A moisturizing ointment. Perfect!" Kagome rummaged through the large jars she had stored on a cool dark shelf, pulled out the one she wanted and took off the lid. Good, it still smelled sweet and felt smooth. Now, what should she put it in?

Another shelf held an array of empty jars, boxes and bottles ready for packaging her concoctions. She picked up two wide-mouthed ceramic jars and considered them. Returning one of the jars Kinji had given her seemed bad form, so did giving him someone else's work. She dithered anxiously, then snatched up a lacquerware jar instead.

To make her presentation even more winning, she wrapped it carefully in her prettiest wrapping cloth, fussed with the knots until she had them just right, then slipped an iris in for good measure.

That done, she freshened up, clamped down on her jittery nerves, mustered up her courage and headed across town to speak to Kinji.

When she arrived at Kinji's shop, the first person she saw was Shoji, who was working at the wheel. He watched her silently as he pushed the clay about to center it. She gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile. His return look was unreadable.

Kinji came from a back room of the shop a moment later carrying an array of glaze pots and brushes on a tray. Kagome bowed respectfully when he saw her and waited with downcast eyes for his permission to approach. He glanced around quickly as he put down the tray.

"You are alone?" he asked.

"For the moment, Kinji-san. InuYasha is off on another errand related to yesterday's... um..."

"I see. Well, please be welcome in our home." The invitation's excess graciousness conveyed Kinji's coolness. Nevertheless, he led her into the family living quarters and offered her a cushion at the table. Shoji showed up a short time later after he had cleaned off his hands and arms.

Kagome knelt on the cushion and formally offered the gift. "An ointment for soothing chapped hands," she explained as Kinji inspected the jar. He smiled briefly and said, "Thank you."

Yoneko came into the room with a tea tray, which she set on the table. She poured tea for everyone, and they exchanged formal pleasantries while they drank.

In time, the meeting reached the moment to turn to business. Kagome took a deep breath and said, "Our difficulty with your proposal is that InuYasha's brother, Sesshomaru, believes Rin belongs to him. He's very dangerous when he's crossed, so, as much as we would like to say yes, we can't just go ahead without at least trying to find him and get his approval. We haven't seen or heard from him for over a year, so it could take us a while. Please bear with us while we get the word out among the Dog Clans that we're looking for him."

While Shoji and Yoneko exchanged started looks, Kinji frowned in consternation, then said, "In just what manner does Rin 'belong' to this Sesshomaru?"

Kagome blushed as she realized the implication of what she had said. "Oh, oh no, it's not like that!" she stammered. "I'm quite sure they've always been chaste. Sesshomaru firmly believes humans are inferior beings, so he'd never lower himself to that. It... it's hard to define just exactly how he views Rin. Sometimes he treats her like a daughter, at others, more like a pet. The main thing is that he views himself as her keeper, so we need to at least try to find him and let him know what's going on."

"What it you can't find him?" Shoji asked anxiously. "What then?"

"I believe Rin is an adult now and can make her own choices," Kagome said firmly. "She wants to marry you and InuYasha and I will back her choice if there's trouble later. I do think Sesshomaru also wants her to be happy, so I believe he'll let her go."

"I don't know, Shoji," Kinji said. "This marriage sounds very risky. It would be very bad luck to be subject to the ill will of the youkai folk. Perhaps it would be wiser to find another girl to marry."

"Please, Uncle, not yet," Shoji pleaded. " I like Rin. Let's at least see how it goes before we make any decisions."

"InuYasha and I have decided to try to look for Sesshomaru for a month, if that suits you," Kagome said.

Kinji's family exchanged glances, then nodded. A month sounded good.

"Very well," Kagome smiled, "I hope to have a good answer for you soon."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There was one person who undoubtedly knew where Sesshomaru was hiding, but Karimaru knew Inazuma was not going to divulge that information, since her hidden son was also there. He, on the other hand, was unwilling to tell her why he needed to find him; it revealed too much of the nature of his association with the "enemy". He also preferred not to remind her of Rin's existence. He was fond of the mortal girl and remembered all too well Kouri's reaction to Kazan's mortal entanglements.

He let it be known that he had business with Sesshomaru; she replied she would inform him when Sesshomaru was available. He put tails on every one of her intimates and servants and those they contacted; she sent no messages beyond the palace.

Block, block and block. She played a formidable game of Go.

Karimaru and Inazuma continued their dance as the moon waned then waxed back to full. Around them, Kouri prepared for war while Inazuma feigned complete absorption in rearing her litter. Karimaru organized war games and search parties and watched the moon once again approach full. The month was up and he was forced to send InuYasha the news of his failure with his regrets.

InuYasha, in his turn, passed on the news to Rin that the Dogs were unable to find Sesshomaru and that she must make her decision without his knowledge. She chose to fill the great yawning hole of Sesshomaru's desertion by building a new foundation for her life with the attentive young Shoji and his family. The marriage was set for two weeks hence to allow Kagome time to help Rin complete a trousseau.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kouri departed for war, and Inazuma wasted no time leaving the palace to pursue her schemes. The tail Karimaru placed on Inazuma was caught and held by the Sea Dogs for questioning; by the time he managed to win his freedom, her trail was cold, so Karimaru learned of Sesshomaru's reappearance late. Sesshomaru won custody of his son and flew into the wilderness, never knowing that many people wanted to speak to him about Rin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The flight through the air with Sesshomaru was the grandest adventure Aisoku had ever known. The bite of the wind in his face was exhilarating, the rich and varied scents of the forest and fields were enthralling and the vivid colors of the land and sky filled him with wonder, but the time came when he had had enough. It was time to go home and rest. He squirmed in his father's arms and whined petulantly.

Sesshomaru landed in a hidden glen and set his son down on the ground. A squirmy Rin had usually meant she had some physical need to attend to. He waited while the pup sniffed around half-heartedly for a short time, then sat down and whined again.

"Well?" Sesshomaru asked. "What do you want?"

*_Go home!_* An image of darkness and warm fur appeared clear and strong to Sesshomaru: Kazeko and the cave.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. So this was how Inazuma was going to force his hand. Out of concern for this baby's welfare, he would of course return back to the cave where Kazeko would then resume control. He wasn't going to play it that way. He'd been Mother's chess piece for long enough; he was not now going to become Inazuma's.

"You're a big dog now," he told Aisoku. "The cave was for when you were a blind puppy. Now, you learn about the world with me."

*_No!_* Aisoku cried. *_Want Auntie!_* He threw back his head and howled.

Sesshomaru snatched him up by the scruff of his neck and held him up, eye to eye. "Stop that infernal yowling."

The offended Aisoku howled even louder.

Sesshomaru cuffed him. "You will stop that now."

Aisoku froze and hung quivering in Sesshomaru's grasp, looking at him with terrified eyes.

Sesshomaru continued to glare at his son, vaguely disturbed by the uncomfortable feeling it wasn't supposed to work like this. He had no experience with real babies, only a handful of memories of watching his father with InuYasha and of InuYasha, himself, with his own children. The greater part of those memories involved babies draped over shoulders or curled in laps. Awkwardly, he pulled his own son close into the fur draping his shoulder. The quivering pup whimpered and pushed back against him, unsure whether this was a good place to be. They wrestled a while, then Sesshomaru put Aisoku back down on the ground.

Aisoku ran away and hid behind a bush, crying. Auntie. He wanted Auntie, with her warm fur and loving, no-nonsense voice. It was so bright and noisy and odorous and cold out here and ... and the big dog was scary. Eventually, though, the big world was even scarier. He crept out from behind the bush and huddled at Sesshomaru's feet, leaning against him for the comfort of the one familiar thing out here in this big, busy world.

Sesshomaru snorted softly in disgust. He was somehow supposed to train this miserable pup into a warrior? Aisoku (ridiculous name) had been molly-coddled for far too long. Rin had never been this pathetic. She had been cheerful, obedient and competent. Aisoku could learn a few things from her example, and so he would.

"Come," Sesshomaru said, scooping the pup up and putting him once more on his shoulder. "There's someone you need to meet."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sesshomaru landed in the meadow fronting InuYasha's house. With Aisoku still sulking on his shoulder, Sesshomaru studied the melange of scents lingering around the house.

First, and most important, Rin was still here. Her scent called up memories: a cheerful voice behind him, full of questions and wondering observations; Rin and Jaken bickering over his favor; Rin singing to pass the time while she patiently awaited his return... Until now, he truly had not realized just how much he missed her presence.

Sesshomaru next noted updates in the household: the fox kit was still here, although now nearly grown. InuYasha now had two sons and two daughters. Mother was not going to take this development well. Even more interesting, there was the scent of a half-grown bitch about, a youkai bitch, although the youkai was heavily suppressed. Which clan did she belong to and what was her mission?

Aisoku interrupted his musings by squirming impatiently in his arms.

*_Down_,* he said imperiously.

"Not now."

*_Noooo__! Want __down__!_* Aisoku whined, clawing at Sesshomaru's face.

"Be still, whelp." Sesshomaru grabbed Aisoku by his scruff and held him up nose to nose, drilling him with an icy glare and resisting with difficulty the urge to shake him. Perhaps he'd best just fetch Rin and move along. Aisoku's training would be better done with just himself and Rin about to instruct him. He strode across the meadow toward InuYasha's front door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shoji lifted the first sake cup of the ceremony and took three sips, then handed it to Kaede to refill. Kaede filled it and passed the cup to Rin.

"Shit!"

All the ceremony's participants froze and looked at InuYasha, shocked.

Kagome, who was kneeling beside him on the bride's side hissed, "What...?"

"Sesshomaru's here," he hissed back, just as Sesshomaru appeared in the doorway and looked around the room.

Before him, a wedding was taking place. InuYasha and his family were kneeling on one side of the room, a small family of mortals knelt on the other, while the young couple knelt in the middle, facing Kaede, who was officiating. Sesshomaru frowned and looked around the room; he could smell Rin, where was she?

"Sesshomaru-sama! You came!" The young woman at the alter turned and looked at him with a radiant smile.

Shock rippled through Sesshomaru. This... this woman? Was Rin? No - she was just a girl. It couldn't have been that long. He was only gone long enough to settle affairs concerning his son...

"This." Sesshomaru gestured about the room. "What is this?"

Rin's smile faltered. "I thought you knew. We've been looking for you for over a month. I'm getting married. I thought you came to give me your blessing."

"Married..." Sesshomaru's frown deepened. Surely, Rin was too young to be selecting a mate. He, himself, had barely mated.

Rin studied Sesshomaru with a long searching look. He looked so young. She had never realized just how young he was. She glanced quickly at InuYasha in comparison; InuYasha looked and acted like a grown man. Of course, he was hanyou; maybe that was the difference. She turned back to Sesshomaru with a wounded, wary look. "You came to get me, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"Just like that," she said, blinking back tears. "You vanish for years; I don't even know if you're thinking about me, and now here you are and I... I..." She looked at Shoji and whispered, "I'm here to get married."

Sesshomaru watched Rin with wistful bemusement. His little girl was gone; in her place was a woman he no longer knew.

Aisoku, who had been quiet for a time surveying of the room, grew restive again. Rin smiled tentatively and put out her hand for him to smell. He snuffed her hand, then tentatively licked her fingers. "This is your son?" she asked softly. "He's so sweet."

Sesshomaru looked rather curdled. "Sweet?" he told the pup distastefully. "You are supposed to be a warrior."

Aisoku cringed and whined dolefully. He wasn't sure what he'd done wrong, but Father wasn't pleased.

"Disgusting," Sesshomaru muttered, looking at the pup with even more distaste.

Rin watched them with consternation. This pup was much too young for the demands Sesshomaru was placing on him, but Sesshomaru didn't seem to understand that.

InuYasha cut into the conversation. "Sesshomaru, we need to talk. Kagome can mind your pup for a few minutes. What's his name, by the way?"

"His aunt calls him Aisoku," Sesshomaru sniffed. "I'm going to change that to something more suitable soon."

"Aisoku works for now," InuYasha said, handing the pup off to Kagome. He then steered Sesshomaru out of the house and a short ways into the woods, then said, "Sesshomaru, now that you are married, you have no business wandering the wilderness with a young woman. You have to let Rin go. "

Sesshomaru looked back at him mulishly. "Rin was mine long before I was pushed into that mating. That takes precedence."

"Does it? What does your wife have to say about that? Your mother wasn't exactly thrilled about mine, now was she?"

"This isn't the same thing at all. Rin is not my mate."

InuYasha leaned back against a tree with his arms folded and said, "That's not the way it's going to play in the Courts, though, is it? 'Like father, like son,' and all that. You're going to humiliate your wife, and she'll probably try to get even. See, I know why Tetsusaiga was forged. It was all about keeping your mother away from mine."

Sesshomaru frowned. "Who told you that?"

"Karimaru and I had a long talk after you blew out of his compound with your son, and I learned a lot that day."

"Don't believe everything Karimaru says. He's as slippery as they come."

"Yeah, maybe, but his story hangs together and it explained a lot. Anyway, back to Rin - do you really want to get her killed? Flaunting her around in front of your wife is a good way to do it."

"I can protect her."

"Yeah, you can, and the best way to do that is to let her marry that young man in there so she can live with her own kind a long way away from the attention of your wife."

"She's safer with me than near you. Don't forget you are Mother's target. She hasn't forgotten you."

"Yeah, maybe, but she sure hasn't done much."

"Don't be so sure of that. You have a spy."

"A spy? Oh, you mean Kourogi? She's Karimaru's daughter and my good-will hostage."

"And a spy. I told you not to trust Karimaru. He seldom tells the whole tale to anyone."

"Keh! Then the joke's on him. I don't have anything to hide. The sooner Karimaru and company figure out I have no interest in the Courts of the Dogs, the sooner they'll get off my back and let me get on with my life."

"I wouldn't count on it."

"Whatever. I still think Rin's chances are better here than getting stuck between you and your wife. Now, are you going to put up a big stink if Rin wants to stay here and get married? She's a grown woman now, she should have some say in her life."

The image of Rin, the woman, appeared in Sesshomaru's mind, and with it his dismay at how much she had changed. His notion that she would show Aisoku how a child should behave no longer made sense. He didn't know what to expect of her now. "Very well, she may stay if she chooses."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rin watched Kagome pet Aisoku and soothe him until his tail wagged tentatively, then put him down among her own children. Kagome smiled up at her, then said, You're looking troubled, Rin-chan."

"I... Can we talk somewhere? Just the two of us?"

Kagome glanced at Shoji's family, who were having their own whispered conference, then nodded. "Let's go to my bedroom for a moment."

Rin entered the room just ahead of Kagome, then turned and said, "Oh, Kagome-sama, did you see Sesshomaru-sama? He doesn't have a clue what to do with that baby. I... I can't leave them like that. It'd be a disaster."

"You're all of seventeen, Rin-chan. What makes you think you could do better?"

"Well, Tsuchiya's seven, Toushi's five, Nariko's two and Taiba's a baby. I also helped out in the Forest Dog's nursery, so there's actually a lot of experience there when you think about it."

"I... I guess that's true, but you'd be throwing away your best chance at a normal life. Shoji and his family are good people; you could be happy raising your own family with them."

"I owe Sesshomaru-sama. I'd be dead if he hadn't taken me in."

"He was really pretty clueless about you, too, you know," Kagome said wryly.

"I know, really, I do, but at least he tried, even if he wasn't very good at it. I... I can't let him bungle this. This is his son. Someone's got to be there to tell him what to do, and he... I think he'll listen to me."

"If he'll listen to anyone, he'll listen to you, but Rin-chan, what will Sesshomaru's wife think about this? I don't think you want to find yourself standing between them. I doubt she'll be very forgiving."

"Sesshomaru-sama's son is more important than I am. Someone has to do this and I'm the best person to do it."

"What about your promise to Shoji-kun? He's going to be crushed."

"I have to tell him, don't I?" Rin said anxiously.

"Yes, you do." Kagome said firmly.

"Would you...?" Rin implored.

"No, I won't. It wouldn't be right."

"No, I guess not," Rin sighed, then steeled herself for the ordeal. A moment later, she drew herself up and glided through the door to kneel before Shoji and his family and tell them about her decision.

Later that evening, after Kagome had smoothed over the shock of Rin's departure with Sesshomaru to the best of her ability with Shoji and his family, she and InuYasha sat with some tea by the hearth and hashed over the day.

"What happened?" InuYasha asked Kagome. "I had Sesshomaru all primed to let her go. I thought she wanted to marry Shoji."

"I think she did, but when she saw Aisoku and what was happening to him, she felt she had to do what she could to make sure he was raised right. She believes she's the only person who can do it, and who knows? Maybe she's right."

"She's going to get herself killed. She's fucking going to get killed, and a fat lot of good that's going to do anyone. Damn it, Kagome, couldn't you get her to see sense?"

"What could I say? Yes, I know she's doing the wrong thing, but she's doing it for all the right reasons. All we can do is hope it works out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Author's Note: _

_Merry Christmas! I finally got the next chapter done. _

_I'll spare you all the rant about how much time and energy building retaining walls sucks out of one's life. Suffice it to say there were entire weeks when I scarcely even booted my computer, much less worked on my writing. At least the blasted things are done._

_Enjoy!_


	57. Chapter 57 Demolition Derby

Chapter 57 - The Demolition Derby

Kagome called a family meeting shortly after Rin had left with Sesshomaru. As the situation now stood, she could not keep up with both her miko duties and maintaining the household. Something had to change. When the meeting convened, Kagome faced Shippo, Tsuchiya, Toushi and Nariko; InuYasha had already left to chase down some new chimera of the local farmer, Yukichi's, overactive imagination.

"All right, people," she said, "somebody needs to take over all the chores Rin was doing. I just can't do it all by myself. I need dishes washed, water and firewood fetched and help doing the laundry and floors. You kids are plenty old enough to pick up some of the slack here."

Nariko, age two and a half, was the only one who looked even remotely interested. Five-year-old Toushi considered her mother suspiciously while seven-year-old Tsuchiya looked down right rebellious. Despite the sinking feeling that this was going to prove even more chaotic than the 'School Project', Kagome said, "You live here, so you can pitch in too."

"What about Shippo?" Tsuchiya asked.

"Shippo already does more than his share and he's getting old enough to set up housekeeping for himself when he chooses," Kagome replied.

"Shippo wouldn't do that!" Tsuchiya cried.

"I don't know," Shippo remarked with a sidelong look at Tsuchiya, "Any more nights like last night, and I might."

Kagome frowned and asked sharply, "What happened last night?"

"Nothing!" Tsuchiya cried hastily.

Kagome turned the frown to Tsuchiya and said, "Shippo doesn't seem to think so."

"I said I was sorry," Tsuchiya said to Shippo.

"Tsuchiya?" Kagome prompted.

"It won't happen again." Tsuchiya assured her.

"What won't happen again?"

"Nothing!" Tsuchiya insisted in a panic.

Kagome folded her arms and stared sternly at Tsuchiya. "OK. 'Nothing' won't happen again. Somehow, that's pretty easy to believe. Shippo, would you care to fill me in?"

"Nooooo," Tsuchiya mouthed frantically at Shippo, shaking his head vehemently.

Shippo looked measuringly at Tsuchiya, then told Kagome, "Don't worry about it. It was pretty silly, and no harm was done. It was just really, really annoying."

"Right." Kagome was not pleased about the conspiracy of silence, but there wasn't much she could do about it. "Anyway, we were talking about chores."

"Papa doesn't do chores," Tsuchiya observed.

Kagome tried to hide the grimace that invoked. Personally, she considered it a victory just getting him to bathe regularly and put some effort into his table manners. "There's a couple of things there... First, Papa has a bigger responsibility to the whole village. He's the one who protects us all from bandits and dangerous youkai..."

"Well, I keep animals and birds out of the fields," Tsuchiya interrupted.

Why were all kids such budding lawyers?

"...Second, " Kagome continued, "Papa has a history of making a bigger mess than he started with when he tries to help..."

Kagome did not like the speculative look that brought to Tsuchiya's face. That may not have been the best admission to make.

"...Third, a lot of what Papa does is help manage you. You make both of us work very hard and now it's time you started to give something back."

Toushi bit her lip and looked thoughtful, while Tsuchiya looked at the floor uncomfortably.

"These chores won't take all day. If everyone does a little bit, no one has to do a lot, OK? You'll still have time to play," she assured them. "Today, let's start with dishes. Tsu-chan, will you please fetch firewood and fill the urn with water?"

Grumbling, Tsuchiya went out the door with the buckets.

Kagome got up and pulled down the slop bucket and the wash basins and set up for washing on the sideboard. She put the slop bucket on the floor and told Nariko to scrape all the stuff off the plates into the bucket then stack them on the sideboard. In the meantime, she put a kettle on the fire to heat water.

Tsuchiya came in the door with buckets filled to the brim. Water sloshed over the rims with each step he took and by the time he had managed to tip the buckets into the urn, there was a large puddle around its base.

"Not so full, next trip," Kagome admonished him as he went out for his next pass.

"But Mama, if they're full, I'll be done faster," he complained.

"Only if all the water stays in the buckets, which it's not," she replied.

"But..."

"Water on the floor is not water in the urn. You'll still have to go back the same number of times."

"No, I won't," he insisted.

"Tsuchiya, please..."

Tsuchiya slouched out the door and Kagome turned her attention to Toushi. She set up the soap and poured hot water into the basins and put in the first stack of plates.

"All right, first you wash everything off the plates here, then you put them in the rinse water to get off the soap, then you stack them in this rack to drain. When the rack is full, we'll dry them off the rest of the way and put them away."

Toushi put her hand in the water for the first plate, then snatched it back quickly. "Mama, the water's too hot!"

Kagome checked the water. "You've taken baths in hotter water. It's fine."

Toushi snatched up a corner of the washcloth that was floating on the surface and, gingerly pinching it by as little surface area as she could manage, she swished it over a plate. Bits of rice still clung to it when she dipped the plate briefly in the rinse water and popped it in the rack.

Kagome handed the plate back. "It's not done. See all the rice and the soy sauce stain? Try it again."

"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!" Toushi gasped as she once more swished the cloth over the plate.

Kagome grabbed her hand and the plate and forced her to rub the plate firmly to get off the food residues. "See? Now it's clean. That's how you do it."

The next time Tsuchiya came through the door, many minutes later, the buckets were just as full as before, but he was walking very slowly to ensure that none of the water sloshed out. He made his way across the room, then sloshed out a large splash of water as he tried to lift the bucket up to pour it in the urn.

"Tsuchiya! Really, you can't carry that much water at a time," Kagome cried. "Do you see that puddle on the floor? That came from loading too much at a time. Now mop it up before one of us gets hurt slipping on it."

"Awwww, man!" Grumbling, he fetched a rag and started sopping up the puddle.

Kagome turned back to Toushi and discovered she had only been washing the tops of the plates. She put them all back in the wash water and made her do them over.

"Why do I have to do that?" Toushi whined. "We don't eat off the bottoms."

"We do stack the dishes, and when you put a dirty-bottomed plate on top of a clean plate the lower plate gets dirty. See?" Kagome demonstrated it.

"Oh."

The musical sound of water splashing made Kagome look up to see Tsuchiya wringing off the wet rag into the urn.

"No! We drink that water!" Kagome gasped, horrified. "We'll have to dump that water and start over."

"What? No way!"

"We absolutely cannot drink that water now."

"But Mama..."

"No buts. Empty that urn, the water goes outside, and start over."

Oh, man!"

The morning was memorable for everyone concerned. By the time the dishes were safely washed and put away, it was mid-afternoon and Kagome was exhausted. InuYasha found her by the hearth with a pot of tea when he got back

"So, did you find anything this time?" she asked as he came in, grumbling, and helped himself to some of the tea.

"Are you kidding? Of course not. Fucking lunatic, he's going to drive me insane. How did chores go?"

"Ugh. It was ten times as much work as doing it myself. Tsuchiya flooded the house filling the urn, then wrung off the mop in the urn so he could save the water. We had to dump the whole thing and start over. I think we washed the dishes five time before Toushi got it right."

"So, you still think this is worth it?"

"It was just the first day. I really wasn't expecting anything else. Everyone should remember today's disaster and not do that again."

"They'll just find something else."

"Yeah, probably, but eventually the idea that doing it right gets it done sooner will take over and we'll be on our way."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day of chores was significantly less chaotic. Kagome and Tsuchiya had a discussion about just how neatly one needed to stack firewood, and the puddle on the floor was significantly smaller. Toushi only got a quarter of the dishes returned for a redo and Kagome had to help her with scrubbing off some cooked-on rice in the steamer. By the third day, Kagome was able to turn the better part of her attention to other things while she monitored the kids' progress.

"How's Mama's little Buddha-boy? Kagome asked as she picked the just-awakened Taiba up from his nap.

Taiba rewarded her with a cheerful, toothless grin, then grabbed the rattle in her hand to suck on while she changed him.

If you ignored the black-furred ears that poked out through his sparse hair, he really did look like a plump, cheerful little Buddha. Kagome smiled at the thought as she handled the wet diaper. Moments later, she swooped her fresh, clean baby up in the air and blew on his tummy. He giggled gaily and swung the rattle in a wide arc, scattering its jingle-rings all over the room.

"Again?" Kagome thought with dismay. "I checked that rattle before I gave it to him." She took the now-bare stick from him and looked closely at the ends. That ball had been glued on solidly! She could have sworn it. Now, the ball was lying on the changing mat and the jingles were everywhere. Kagome frowned at Taiba, thinking. That rattle had gone through three other children with no sign of wear, and now... this. How did he do it? Did he do it? Or were all of her toys designed to spontaneously self-destruct after four children?

"Mister, you and I need to talk."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Laundry day was always a major undertaking. Even with Tsuchiya fetching water and wood and the girls helping her sort the clothes, there was still the heavy labor of washing, rinsing and hanging everything out to dry. Kagome finally got the last pair of pants and a long line of diapers stretched out in the sun, then gathered up her baskets to return to the house for a breather over a pot of tea. Taiba had been peacefully napping in the playpen when she left the house.

When she came through the door with the girls close behind, she found Taiba sitting happily in front of the family alter amid a scattering of all of its contents. Several bars had been removed from the playpen, leaving a hole he would wriggle through. Further inspection revealed that he had removed the altar's cabinet doors by pulling the hinge pins. He had then unscrewed the hinge pieces from the doors and the body of the altar, along with the rest of the latches and drawer pulls. All the drawers had been removed from their slides and dumped. Every single bottle, jar and box stored in the altar was unstoppered, unscrewed or opened and lids were scattered everywhere. Incense, oils, paper and ink were strewn about through everything else, making a highly aromatic, slippery mess. Taiba had one of the drawers stretched across his lap and he was carefully poking at the dovetails, trying to figure out how they came apart.

"Whoa!" Toushi said in awe. "That's the biggest mess I've ever seen."

It was indeed one of the most spectacular messes Kagome had ever encountered. Only the aftermaths of certain demolished villages in the hunt for Naraku exceeded it. Cleaning the oils and inks from the flooring and woodwork could take days, but the most daunting part was the prospect of trying to put the altar back together, assuming she could even find all the pieces.

Sango proved unsympathetic when Kagome told her the story the next day.

"You know, if you just carried him in a sling like everyone else, he couldn't get loose to do all that," she remarked.

"No, I'd just get everything he gets his hands on woven through my hair or dumped down my back and you wouldn't believe how much he manages to grab. You know, I've been banned from Aiko's shop if I happen to have a kid along."

"Does she really do that?" Sango laughed.

"Yes, she does. They've destroyed her shop at least twice and there have been loads of smaller incidents, so I don't really blame her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About once a month, Kagome tackled a pile of accumulated mending for an afternoon. She had put Taiba down for a nap with fervently crossed fingers, hoping she had finally built a pen he couldn't escape without warning. It wasn't just that he was amazingly destructive, he was also really sneaky about it. All of the other kids she could hear or see as they took off on their explorations, but Taiba had a real knack for slipping out under her radar.

She sat by the fire and held up a pair of Tsuchiya's pants, sighing. How had he ripped another hole in them so fast? She knew she had repaired them just last week. Shaking her head, she clipped yet another patch from her rag pile and threaded her needle. She lined up the patch and started stitching. As she worked, she slowly became aware that it was very quiet. It wasn't a calm silence, but rather, an ominously expectant one, like the house was waiting with bated breath for...

KaWHUMP! CLATTERclatterclatterclink...clink... "!" Click-clack. Clink.

By the time the commotion settled, Kagome had untangled herself from the mending and bolted to the storeroom. Peering through the door, she found Taiba poking through the dishes at the base of a collapsed shelf, inspecting them to see if he could dismantle them too.

"Oh, Taiba, do you know how lucky you are? One of these days, you're going to be under something when it collapses."

"Aa?" Taiba looked at her quizzically, then happily went back to figuring out how to take apart the next piece.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mama, can I gets a cookie, too?" Nariko asked, tugging on Kagome's pants while she loaded a newly concocted batch of ointment into jars.

"No, it's too close to dinner," Kagome replied.

"But Tsuchiya gots one," Nariko pouted.

"What? I didn't say he could have one." Kagome frowned and turned around to see her son bolting from the storeroom. "Tsuchiya! Who said you could have a cookie?"

Tsuchiya halted in his gallop past Kagome from the storeroom to the door. "Um..."

"It's nearly dinner time."

"But I'm hungry now."

That would explain all the odd things she kept finding missing from her food stores when she was preparing meals. "Tsu-chan you have to ask. It's awfully hard to make dinner if I keep finding ingredients missing."

"You'll just say no," Tsuchiya said sullenly.

"But you can't eat everything in the house. The rest of us need to eat, too. You really do get plenty."

"I do not!" Tsuchiya shouted, stomping out of the house.

All right, if he wanted to play it that way, she could make sure he asked before hand. She went into the larder section of the storeroom and put spiritual barriers on everything there.

While she was preparing dinner, InuYasha came in and said, "Sorry, but I've got to get over the pass to Masahiro's village tonight, so I won't be here for dinner. Do you have something I can just grab and take with me?"

"Yeah, there's some pickled fish, rice crackers and a couple of apples back there," Kagome replied while she sliced up dinner's fish into bite-sized pieces.

"Great." InuYasha disappeared into the storeroom.

BANG! Wham! "Shit! Kagome! What's with the fucking barrier?"

"Oh, no." Kagome hurried into the storeroom, helped InuYasha back to his feet then pulled down his food. "I'm sorry. Tsuchiya's been sneaking food behind my back and I'm trying to force him to talk to me first. Unfortunately, I don't know how to make barriers for just him. I'll see if Kaede knows how tomorrow."

The next morning, Kagome did her rounds of the ailing, then went to visit Kaede to discuss the case of a woman who seemed to be possessed by a demon. Miroku joined them to add his expertise. After they had discussed possible techniques for exorcising the demon in the woman, and arrived at a plan, she explained the problem she was having with Tsuchiya and asked for advice. Kaede admitted that she didn't know how to tailor a barrier to focus on a single entity, but Miroku said ofuda were a lot more flexible.

"I haven't been trained as a Buddhist priest," Kagome said. "Do you think I can learn to write ofuda?"

"You can at least write," Miroku replied. "Let's give it a try, shall we? How about tomorrow morning?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Miroku arrived for Kagome's lesson just as Kagome was prodding Tsuchiya into bringing in more wood and water for the morning dishes. Toushi was stacking the dirty dishes to suit her washing and Nariko was scraping dishes into the scraps bucket.

"Am I early?" he asked, peering through the door.

"No, you're fine," Kagome replied, wiping mashed pumpkin off Taiba's chubby little face. "The older ones can handle the chores." She handed the last of the dishes to Nariko, who screwed her face up at the state of Taiba's eating utensils.

"Ewww."

"You were twice as bad," Kagome told Nariko. Nariko looked like she didn't believe it.

Toushi chimed in with, "Yeah, you had pumpkin mashed in your hair and smeared up to your elbows and ..."

"Did not!" Nariko objected.

"Did too!" Toushi exclaimed.

"Thbthbthbhthbbb!"

While the girls exchanged dirty looks, Kagome wiped down the table, then went to a box that held of all of their clerical supplies.

"Is there anything special about the paper or the ink?" she asked as she rooted around in the box, examining her array of pens.

"I don't think so," Miroku replied. "I've always used a standard brush and ink. I've had to get creative a couple of times with the paper, and they still worked."

"Oh, good." Kagome swooped out the pens that worked the best and some binder paper.

Tsuchiya plunged through the door with a pair of buckets filled with water, then withdrew to get the firewood. Toushi seized a bucket and started pouring it into the kettle, then dropped the bucket with a clattering sploosh when a frog jumped out of it into her face.

"Aaugh! Tsuchiya!" she yelled, bending over to grab the frog while Nariko howled, "Toushi! You got me wet all over! Mama, I'm all wet!"

Kagome looked up at Nariko, who was sopping wet, and Toushi who was clutching the frog like a baseball pitcher just before a pitch. "Toushi, do NOT throw that frog in the house! All right, Nariko, go get some dry clothes. Tsuchiya, get that frog out of here," she added as Tsuchiya came in with an armful of firewood.

She looked at Miroku and said with an artificially bright smile, "I have a boy for sale, cheap. He's even house-trained."

The frog escaped in the handoff from Toushi to Tsuchiya and jumped wildly across the room, hotly pursued by Tsuchiya and Toushi. The frog landed in the middle of Kagome's assembled calligraphy supplies before Tsuchiya finally snatched it and slipped out the door with it.

"Well, mostly house-trained," she amended as Tsuchiya disappeared and Toushi turned back to the dishes. She took a breath and held it a moment while she pulled her thoughts back together. "Now, where were we? I have the paper and pens and ..."

"Now we talk technique," Miroku said. "Your state of mind is important. It's like calligraphy, only more so. You're trying to capture the spirit of your intent on the paper."

"How do you know what sutra to use?" Kagome asked.

"I generally chose some lines from one of the Dharani's that banishes demons, like the Dharani of Removing Disasters, then meditate on the effect I want it to do while I write it."

"Oh." This was all very new to Kagome. "How do you know when you've done it right?"

"You'll feel it. Power will run through your arm to your brush, or in this case, pen, then into the paper."

"Aah." Kagome picked up a pen and waggled it with her eyes closed, reaching down into herself to tap the power. "Man, if I'd known what I was really going to do when I grew up, I'd have spent a lot more time on the arts."

Miroku laughed. "Perhaps, but your other knowledge may still prove valuable. Shall we give it a try?"

Kagome shrugged, then closed her eyes, picking out a good phrase from the Dharani of Removing Disasters.

About an hour later, after practicing intently on a dozen ofuda which Miroku assessed as she made them, Kagome paused suddenly with her pen poised in the air.

"It's too quiet."

"Too quiet?" Miroku murmured absentmindedly, "Is there such a thing?" In Miroku's household, with its large number of squealing, chattering girls, silence was unknown.

"You don't have Taiba in the house. Trust me, there is such a thing as too quiet." Kagome stood up and looked around the room, then cried in dismay, "Oh, Taiba, that is not a toy!"

Miroku turned to see that Taiba had crawled over to his shakujo and was playing with the rings. In fact, somehow, he had removed three of the rings completely and was currently teething on one of them.

"Augh! No! He took off some of the rings!" Miroku scrambled to his staff and inspected the head. There was no break in the circle. He picked up the two rings laying on the floor and found they were linked together. Holding them up, he asked, "Kagome-sama, how did he...?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I've never actually seen him do it. I just get to deal with the aftermath."

Miroku spun one of the linked rings pensively, then looked at Taiba.

"I don't suppose you know how to put it back, do you?" he asked the baby hopefully.

"Aa?"

"You know ..." Miroku mimed putting the rings back on the head of the staff.

Taiba grinned at him, all dimpled charm and absolutely no help.

"I didn't think so."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The River Woman watched the figures orbiting her anchor, sourly contemplating the new addition to the constellation. A monkey - that was about the last thing she needed. Gah! An impulsive thundercloud, a tightly wound, temperamental dragon, a snake with much too long a memory, and now a monkey, who would not be able to resist fiddling with anything and everything. Someone out there had a really twisted sense of humor. She suspected Inari of meddling, but doubted she could ever prove it. Still, if it was Inari, she really shouldn't discount his judgement. Inari could be treacherous, but there was no disputing the subtlety of his understanding. He, too, was more than a little disturbed by Muchitsujo-rei. Perhaps there was something in this combination that offered possibilities that could not be accomplished otherwise. She should retire to her spring for a time, and meditate...


	58. Chapter 58 Loose Ends

Chapter 58 - Loose Ends

The River Woman sat, lotus-style, in her pool, relishing the flow of the current that welled out from the rocks to swirl gently around her. The bracing cold cleansed her soul, driving out the agitation that clouded her clarity.

The little monkey-boy joining the constellation of her anchor was really the least of her worries, despite the fact that he was what had ultimately driven her here. She had been out of sorts since the last Kamiarizuki at Izumo.

Just as salmon return to their natal streams from the seas, just as birds fly their yearly migrations, so must all kami return to Izumo each Fall to meet and renew their ties. No matter how great or small, how gregarious or reclusive, how mad, rebellious or belligerent, they all came to the annual Convocation of the Kami in Izumo-taisha, the Great Shrine of Izumo.

The River Woman generally stayed quietly out of the spotlight, a simple river tributary little noted by the more resplendent kami, but this year her great, brown lover had chosen her as his chief consort and put her first in his train of tributary streams.

It was a heady experience and she was not altogether sure that she liked it. It was much more comfortable when placid, blue Annonna led the train, but this year, Annonna, pale and spent from a year of cleansing her river of the ravages of a recent volcanic eruption, was not up to the rigors of the High Court of Oukuninushi, the Lord of Izumo-taisha. The River Woman traveled in the rarified circles of the great kami this year; she was dazzled by Amaterasu, frightened by Susano-o, nodded in passing to Emma-o and Hachiman, chatted with Ryuujin and his Sea Lords, and watched with dismay as Inari worked the crowd.

Inari always unsettled her, but it was particularly alarming to watch as he/she solemnly accepted petitions from a myriad of earnest small rivers and valleys seeking a fruitful year, then laughed and danced with the wildest elements in gay abandon. What kind of deals was Inari making, which promises did Inari intend to keep? In female aspect, Inari actively courted Muchitsujo-rei, flirting outrageously and engaging in a very long, giggling tete-a-tete in a corner of the shrine while the other kami reported to Oukuninushi the news of their realms. Later, at the Great Dance, as the eight million kami danced, passing in sinuous procession until each had met and touched every other, Inari cooed to her as they met, "_Darling, it is beyond time you joined us in the greater circle. You add a sparkle that has been sorely missing._" As Inari spoke, she slipped a note into the River Woman's obi and moved to the next dancer.

"_What was that all about?_" asked one of the River Woman's sister consorts. "_It's not like Annonna won't be back in her place next year._"

"_I know, and she's welcome to it_," the River Woman replied. "_I'm much too small for this. Perhaps it's just the novelty of seeing a different face that interests Inari-sama_."

"_I suppose. Inari-sama does love novelty_."

After the Dance was done and the last mountain had been met, the last spring saluted, the last grotto greeted, the kami rejoined their clan groups and filed through the torii gates to slip away into the air, the sea and the earth to return to their respective sacred places.

While she waited her turn with her clan, the River Woman slipped the note out of her obi to read it.

"_We must talk. Follow the fox at the Gate when you depart._"

"_What's this?_" her River Lord asked quietly as he joined her to head their clan's their procession.

She gave it to him, saying only, "_Inari._"

He read it, then handed it back. "_Ah._" He turned to another of his tributary consorts from the group forming behind him and said, "_You are looking particularly lovely tonight. Will you do me the honor of joining me on the trip home?_"

The River Woman ignored the contemptuous looks and speculative whispers of her sister consorts as she retreated to the back of the procession. Let them talk; she had larger concerns. She slipped away as the clan slid into the river and watched at the torii gate as the last of the bright spirits drifted away to their homes, then looked about her for the fox that was to guide her to Inari. All she could find was an old, decaying statue of a fox with a key in its mouth whose partner had long since crumbled into rough shards. She gazed pensively at the statue, then frowned slightly as she detected a faint glimmer about it. Reaching out, she touched the key and instantly found herself in the dim, golden glow of a granary. The air was overly warm and close after the brisk, night air of Izumo-taisha.

Inari sat enthroned upon the stacked bundles of rice on the far side of the granary, now in male aspect, ancient and subtle. He quirked an eyebrow at her and said, "_You disapprove._"

When she stared at him blankly, he added, "_I noticed you watching me throughout the festival._"

She flushed and looked down, then, drawing up her courage, she said, "_I know a lot of the streams who petitioned you. It disturbed me to watch you accept their petitions, then go carousing with all of the elements that will dash their hopes. Do you intend to honor them at all?_"

The ancient kami chuckled indulgently. "_My dear, therein lies the difference between us. You are Clarity Incarnate and I - well, I understand that one must often deal with the devils to help one's friends. I can't help all of those earnest little rivers and groves; no, I never can, but, with a little flattery here and cajoling there, I can get some of those Storm Gods and Volcano Lords to look elsewhere for a season or two. It's always a balancing act, and some years go better than others_."

"_So you were...?_"

"_Of course, darling._"

"_And what did you wheedle from Muchitsujo-rei? You were with him for hours._"

Inari's expression went distinctly sour. "_Nothing directly. I've never known him to be so coy, but, while he won't say anything useful, he's definitely gloating._"

"_Gloating?_"

"_Oh, yes. He's very smug about something._"

"_So what __did__ he say?_"

"_Ugh. What didn't he say?_" Inari scowled._ "He spoke of typhoons and typhus, blizzards and blights, he waxed long about Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi and Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu, or Tokugawa Ieyasu, as he styles himself now. Are you really sure about that Ieyasu? He seems, perhaps, too hidebound to me._"

"_He is a minor player. I have found him reliable,_" the River Woman said softly.

"_Reliable. Well, yes, reliable, yet hidebound, and perhaps not as minor as you would believe. Nobunaga burns too bright and Hideyoshi prospers by his cleverness. You may find the final survivor is Ieyasu in the end. He's just the sort to ossify the Realms and then we'll be just as imbalanced as we are now. We aren't meant to be an unchanging jewel any more than we're meant to be a raging fire._"

That, of course, was Inari's opinion. Inari liked a degree of disturbance; the River Woman, herself, was weary of the uproar, but she felt there was nothing to be gained in exploring their differences in taste. Inari had not invited her here to discuss that. "_Never mind the men. Muchitsujo-rei just brought them up to draw your mind elsewhere. You said it yourself, what __didn't__ he say? What was he silent about?_"

Inari smiled wryly. "_That's just it, isn't it? I confess I'm stuck. It's so much easier to find a hill than a hole. And yet, he's awfully smug about something_."

And there it was, the festering thorn. What had Muchitsujo-rei done that he was so pleased about? Despite her rather sour-tempered assessment of the little monkey-boy, she really couldn't call him a team-breaker. Her anchor and its satellites were still good, she just needed to adjust her strategies. Muchitsujo-rei's attempts to stir Kouri against InuYasha had thus far aroused several of the Clans, but InuYasha, himself, was still well out of the picture as the Clans' intrigues gathered scope and complexity. Ebisu still had Sumio effectively hogtied, battles had been going well for the cabal's chosen warlords, and so on and so forth.

The River Woman sat, closing her mind to all but the cool flow of the spring swirling languidly through her. She looked up, watching snow eddy down and vanish as it struck the water.

_I wonder what happened to that little novice monk? _The thought bubbled up as languidly as the swirling water. The panic-slash of realization jolted through her as a palpable force. "_That's it!_" Muchitsujo-rei had found him! But how? Where? She launched out of the water and vaulted into the Kami-Realm to her position by the game field.

Events flickered across the board, personalities shifted colors as their destinies changed, lights appeared and disappeared as people, kami, youkai and other beings entered and left the Mortal Realm. Such a great expanse of Space and Time... She walked downstream to That Which Has Passed and sought Kurumi's battle once more.

Ah, there: the tiny mountain hut, within, the two tiny spirits and the one great; and once more the surrounding field erupted into a chaos of discordant cosmic waves crashing together to form a psychic storm that flared, blindingly bright, obscuring everything for miles and days. A raw hole of anguish remained after the battle, throbbing sullenly in the remains of the hut, marking the spot where the wounded Muchitsujo-rei lay, panting in pain and fury.

As she had the first time, the River Woman once more watched with horrified fascination as Muchitsujo-rei mustered his remaining strength and sent out psychic tendrils that sucked all the life from the immediate area. The blasted tree turned gray and shed its remaining needles. The water lilies withered and turned to slime. The fish, frogs and turtle that lived in the pond perished, leaving their carcasses floating among the remains of the lilies. The hapless birds that fled too late fell from the air or dropped from the bushes; the mice and moles expired, unseen, in their dens.

The River Woman sharpened her focus and looked more keenly, seeking one particular soul in the blasted zone. So many little lives, so many varied souls, now nothing but husks that lay unmoving under a building blanket of snow. There was only one human within the ruin, the old hermit, Kurumi. His student was not here.

So. Somehow he had escaped during the battle. He was somewhere else when Hachiman descended into that debacle where he failed to subdue the wounded Muchitsujo-rei. Downhill, the valley below the hut was swept clean by an avalanche caused by the psychic storm. Uphill, the mountain peak was vanishing in the fury of a winter storm whose freezing winds and blowing snows swirled around the peaks and through the gorges. Even so, he must have gone up, although finding him in that chaos of Wind Lords and Storm Dogs was beyond her capacity.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The abbot's messenger entered the stable and walked the stalls, peering into each until he found the man he was seeking.

"Oy, Daruma-san, the abbot wants to see you."

The young man called 'Daruma' looked up from cleaning a horse's hoof with a little thrill of alarm. Even after two years in Oyama Gobo, he was still uncertain of his fitness to be here. "I... Yes. Should I go now, or can I finish here first?"

"You should have some time. Motoharu-sama caught Soujo-sama with a huge stack of documents just as I left."

"Oh. What's going on?"

"Word has it that the Mori have a contract for us in their dispute with the Outomo. Ishiyama Hongan-ji is mustering support from the rest of the temples and Motoharu-sama wants to take guns and horses along with the usual foot soldiers."

A wave of terror surged through Daruma, leaving him sweaty and shaking. Horses, guns, shouting men, screaming children, fire roaring all around him...

"Daruma-san? Are you all right, Daruma-san?"

The darkness of the burning night faded back to the stuffy, comfortable, dimness of the stable. The horse beside him shifted and stamped.

"I... Yes. I... I'll finish the horses and go directly after."

The abbot's messenger left. Daruma broke into a shuddering sweat again as he fought to dispel the flashback of the night he lost everything he loved. Motoharu-sama wanted horses; he was good with horses. Would the abbot send him along with Motoharu-sama to care for the horses on campaign? Was he going to become one of those raiding parties just like the one that had destroyed his life? He couldn't say no; he was a member of Oyama Gobo now. The great play of his life had never been so bitterly ironic.

Still, he could delay a short time. He would do right by these horses before he met the abbot. He finished cleaning and checking the hooves of his current charge, brushed him and left food and water, then continued through the drill for the remaining horses. Sighing in resignation, he left the stable, washed, put on clean clothes and presented himself to the abbot's secretary to await the abbot's pleasure outside his office door.

"You may have twenty guns and three cannons," he heard the abbot say. "I prefer to retain enough for our own defenses. That Oda Nobunaga has his eyes on us and we cannot leave ourselves too vulnerable."

"This prudence of yours will leave us too vulnerable. We must be bold. Let him fear our fearlessness."

"Your words have merit, and I have no doubt you will impress the daimyo with the resolve of the Faithful of Amida. However, you are going south, and the Oda are to our east. Nobunaga would not be one to miss an opportunity to take the temple."

"Huh!"

"The Mori have guns themselves. I am sure that between you, you will have enough to overawe the Outomo. In the meantime, I have our people, here, to protect. My regrets, Motoharu-san."

"Soujo-sama"

A moment later, Motoharu, Oyama Gobo's general, strode out, followed by two of his officers.

"Feh! Twenty guns, might as well hamstring us. Fine showing we're going to make with only twenty guns. Eh, well, let's go see what the quartermaster has managed to rattle loose for us. We leave in four days."

The abbot came to the door to watch as Motoharu disappeared around a corner. Turning, he saw Daruma standing by the door, wide-eyed and trembling.

"Ah, you're here."

Daruma prostrated himself before the priest's feet.

"Yes, Sensei."

"Please, come and walk with me for a while."

Bewildered and very frightened, Daruma got to his feet and bowed low. "As Sensei wishes."

The abbot looked for a moment at his odd young charge. He was absolutely self-effacing, he seldom spoke, performed his duties in the stables with earnest diligence and spent most of his off-hours in the Amidado, the worship-hall dedicated to Amida, amid the scented silence of the holy artifacts. He would be almost invisible, were it not for the faint glow that surrounded him. The abbot had watched and wondered about his mysterious ward from the time of his admission to the community. Where did he come from? What destiny drove him? What manner of doom did he bring with him to the Hongan-ji? He was touched by the gods, that was evident, but that could mean any manner of things.

The abbot took a seemingly aimless path as they strolled: through the gardens, where he spoke disarmingly of the finches nesting in the eaves of the tea house, past the archery range, where he noticed Daruma's anxiety, then on to the stables.

"You do well by the horses," the abbot remarked as they entered the stable yard and watched another stable hand exercise Motoharu's big, red stallion. "Have you worked with horses before?"

"No, Sensei," Daruma said deferentially.

"Did you handle any livestock before?"

"No, Sensei. I... we... we farmed until ... until my village was burned."

"Ah. And then what befell you?"

"Nothing was left, so I fled to a monastery and became a monk. That monastery also burned up in an attack and I escaped to the mountains and met a hermit who taught me for a while. He died fighting an asura and I ran again, out into a blizzard. Then I woke up, here, and I can't remember how I got here, or even understand where I am. It... it seems so unreal, being here, like I'm here, and I'm not. What does it mean, Sensei? I'm just a farmer. I have no understanding of these things."

The abbot was also at a loss. Daruma was beyond his experience; he was unlike any ghost or other spirit the priest knew of. He tried to take comfort in this, that this being asked questions, that he was seeking answers. The dead were frozen and did not care about anything outside their obsession; other spirits were unaware of their limitations and thus never even considered a quest for knowledge. The young man was human, whatever else was within him. Still, it seemed important to find out just what that Otherness was.

"I see something... otherworldly about you, but I cannot tell if it is a thing of the realization or delusion. All I know is that there is something we keep in the Amidado that beckons you. Come."

Daruma looked even more frightened as he followed the abbot into the Amidado, then to the sanctuary at the back that held the sutras, reliquaries, ritual vestments and implements and other treasures of the temple. Before the serene eyes of the image of Amida that dominated the sanctuary, the abbot took out a kongou, an artifact symbolizing the holy thunderbolt that dispels illusions, and a bell, symbolizing the hollow of the Void that fills all, and held them up briefly.

"These have nothing to do with our practices. They came to the temple before my tenure. A man came to the temple late one night in terror for his soul, confessing that he had taken them from a Shingon temple and babbling that they were talking to him night and day, whispering to him about the fate of covetous souls. He insisted on leaving them at the alter. We put him up in one of the guest rooms, but the next morning, when the abbot sought him, he was gone. The abbot tried to return them to their home temple, but when we got there, we found it had been burned to the ground over a century before and all the monks with it. When we took them to another Shingon temple, the priest there said we must keep them, that they were brought to us for a reason. We brought them back, put them away and forgot about them, but now, whenever I see you, I see them in my mind. I think, perhaps, we have been keeping them for you."

"For me... But Sensei, I'm just a farmer turned monk, and not a very good one at that. I do not know what to do with them."

"Nor do I. The Shingon only share their lore with their initiates."

"I... I don't want them. I... I'm happy tending the horses and..."

"We don't get to choose our fate, Daruma-san. Fate chooses us, and in your case, these artifacts have chosen you. I will give you what guidance I can, but, as I said, we do not use such things in our practices, so my help will be limited."

"Sensei, may the artifacts remain here for now?"

"Of course." The abbot returned the kongou and the bell to their cabinet. "I shall allot some time after tomorrow's service to teach you what I know."

"Thank you, Sensei." Daruma bowed gratefully to the abbot, and received permission to leave.

Later, when all his daily tasks were done, and the temple had settled into its evening routine, Daruma returned to the Amidado. Three other people were there ahead of them, already immersed in their meditation. He knelt before the image of Amida, prostrated himself three times, then settled into the meditation posture the old hermit, Kurumi, had taught him. Taking his first breath and clearing his mind, he looked up, intending to gaze on the serene statue, but his eyes stopped, midway, seeing the kongou and bell which lay on the altar, glowing softly. He had seen the abbot put them away earlier; now, they lay here, waiting.

The three other people in the room did not seem to see the glowing artifacts that commanded his attention, although he was not sure why.

The old terrors, stirred by the news of the mercenary contract and the abbot's questions about his past, began to well up, roiling in his belly, rising through his thumping heart and darkening his vision until all he could see were the bell and the kongou floating before him. They offered him power, power that he could use to shield himself. He had found no refuge in this world; obscure village, great monastery, hidden hermitage, militant temple, none of these thing had given him the security he sought. He must do it himself, and for that, he needed this power.

With his heart thumping even harder, he rose and approached the altar, then simply stood and stared at the bolt and the bell for a long moment. He looked back quickly to the other meditators; none had moved. Did they even see him? The kongou and the bell glowed even brighter, beckoning him. He reached out, hesitated a moment, then picked up the kongou. It was smooth and warm in his hand, and its power thrummed a bass note through his body, the vibrations growing ever stronger until they dissolved his bones and recast them in unassailable adamant. In rapture, he studied the Amidado and saw, to his growing wonder, that everything within the hall looked infinitely more vivid, more real, each detail limned in the light of its buddha-nature. The other people, in contrast, looked shadowy and insubstantial, like they were unsure of their place in the world. He gazed now at the bell, the counterpart to the bolt, and saw the Void within it, which was still as terrifying as it had been the first time he saw it. He hovered in indecision, tempted and repelled by the promise of the Void to lose himself and gain the Universe. It was beyond him; in the end, he simply could not let go of all that made him distinctly himself. He took only the bolt and, still enthralled, departed into the wilderness.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

_Better and better_, Muchitsujo-rei thought gleefully. _He left the bell, took only the bolt. He will have power, but no vision; an easily manipulated tool_. And so far, his unseen opponent had not found him. Muchitsujo-rei had his suspicions about Inari, but Inari was always visible, sharing sake with priests, guiding flocks of birds and legions of locusts to and away from fields, swimming with river lords and flying with cloud-herds, playing dice with Hachiman over which villages would get trampled by War... No, Inari had his own games, but the Game, itself, did not seem to be one of them.

Still, Muchitsujo-rei could not trust little Daruma to go unnoticed for long, despite the fact his soul had been changed beyond recognition by that tainted kongou. It was time for a distraction, and if he got really lucky, he might even score a telling blow on his opposition.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

_Author's Note:_

_April 2011: Like everyone else, I have been horrified and fascinated by the videos of the huge earthquake and tsunami that Japan has suffered. Kudos to the Japanese for having plans in place and regular tsunami drills. The toll could have been so much worse. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people along the north-east coast have had their homes and businesses completely swept away, and it will take a great deal more than a few weeks of aid to rebuild their lives. I've been in that part of Japan in late March/ early April, and it's still snowing then. It's a dreadful time of year to be without shelter. I've also been through a biggish earthquake (Loma Prieta, 1989) and know what it's like to have wrecked roads and broken water mains. We got lucky, no tsunami, but the daily wondering about whether or not you were going to have water that day wasn't fun._

_Even now, the people in Japan could use all the help we can provide. If you want to help and don't have much to spare, let me recommend the Salvation Army. They have an excellent record of getting maximum aid into the field per dollar donated. I've been through a couple of pretty big disasters and most of the people I've talked to were very happy with what they got from the Salvation Army. _

_The modern-times part of my story is going to include 2011, so I'm going to have to work it in. There's no way something so huge could get passed over. In advance, I dedicate that chapter to the spirit of the Japanese people, who are not letting this knock them down, but are taking this very huge bull by the horns and are wrestling it with all their might._


	59. Chapter 59 First Test

Chapter 59 - First Test

Muchitsujo-rei returned to the Game field for the first time in well over a year, looking for markers he could employ as his distraction. He still had not managed to free Sumio from Ebisu's influence; Ebisu and his rag-tag army of ninjas and rebellious shopkeepers were proving to be annoyingly effective. None of the other warlords Muchitsujo-rei controlled were currently in a position to take action. The Dog Clans were in turmoil, and he was feeding off their energies, but they still had no interest in anything outside their own intrigues.

The kami stared moodily at the markers surrounding the InuYasha/Kagome anchor. The entire zone was calming under its influence, smaller subsidiary anchors were forming near it to temper the zone even more, and the satellites circling it were growing vibrantly. He had broken several of his own agents tackling this construct, and a smattering of their dull, dead markers were scattered through the zone.

Hmph. There was absolutely nothing here. He was just turning away to see what he could influence out to sea when the tiny flicker caught his eye. It took a moment to find it again, but there it was, a tiny wisp of life in one of his markers. He touched the piece and dove into the Realm of the Living pursuing the being it represented.

Deep under ground, in absolute darkness, a pulsing cloud of contending youki and reiki enveloped a life, holding it in suspension. Muchitsujo-rei probed the cloud, then smiled with satisfaction. The reiki was sloppily set, with no real attempt at permanence, so it was easy to dispel. A short time later, the incoherent youki coalesced around the sealed being and began to rotate slowly, reforming once more into a gyre that gradually gained speed and power.

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His first waking impression was the musty, earthy smell of rocks and mouldering bones and leather. Next he felt the chill, and a half-numb, half prickling sensation in his limbs. The darkness was absolute, and all he could hear was the thump of his heart and the rasp of his breath.

What the Hell had happened?

_Knife in his hand, woman tight against him, he drops his hand, taunting the dog-man and ... Deafening silence. Excruciating numbness. Exultant terror. *There is no time in eternity.*_

Now... this. The thump, thump, thump of his slowly awakening heart. Once again, the hiss of a breath. The knife was still in his hand, although he was awkwardly crumpled against a rock wall. He straightened his limbs, gasped against the pain of a dislocated shoulder. Shit. That... that woman, she still held her power? How?

'How' would have to wait; right now, the priority was getting out of here.

First, the shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he willed the pain down into a small corner at the back of his mind, then slowly lifted his arm up, and out, then reached back behind his head to stretch toward the opposite shoulder blade. With a sudden twist, the shoulder popped back into place. He carefully flexed his arm through its range, testing it, then turned to the job of getting out.

The utter darkness was disorienting, but he remembered the cave entrance should be off to his left. He felt his way towards it and found tumbled down earth and rocks. The air here felt flat and dead; there was not telling how long it would take him to dig through the collapse. Farther back in the cave, a light draft of fresher, cooler air with a faint scent of pine trees brushed his face. It seemed that to get out, he would have to go farther in.

A couple of hours later, the wisdom of this choice seemed dubious. The draft led him down into a narrow track he could scarcely squeeze his bulk through, across a deep pool whose surface hung just below the ceiling, leaving him scant room to breathe, up the stream that fed the pool, and then to a tiny chamber that was half-filled with another rock fall. A few sparkles of light showed him the outside world, if he could just manage to shift the boulders blocking the way. It was sheer meanness more than anything that helped him to claw a new entrance above the rock fall. Once out, he collapsed on a flat rock and bathed in the sunlight until a parched mouth and a rumbling stomach pushed him in search of sustenance.

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Kagome stuck her head out the door of the house and said, "Breakfast's ready."

"Hm," InuYasha replied distractedly. His attention was locked on a dark column of smoke rising behind the mountains to the north.

"Isn't that just the charcoal burners?" Kagome asked.

"No. They're lower down and deeper in the forest. That's from the trade path leading toward Ashikaga territory."

"So what do you think...?"

"I don't know. But I am catching whiffs of burned hair and flesh. Maybe I'd better check it out."

"Give me a couple moments. I'll pack you some food."

"That really isn't necessary," InuYasha said in exasperation as she vanished back into the house.

"It won't take but a moment," she replied from the kitchen. He barely had time to grumble about wasted time before she reappeared with a box tied in a kerchief. "Here. Why don't you go see if Kirara is free? She can get you over the mountain the fastest."

"Yeah. Good idea." InuYasha took the bundle, then bounded down the hill to Miroku's house to inquire about Kirara's availability. Kagome got the children settled with their breakfasts, then peeked out the door again in time to see InuYasha and Kirara take to the sky and fly north.

Escaping the rising August heat in the valley, they flew high over the mountains, then dropped lower to follow the trade path out of the Edo plain and into the pass to Ashikaga. InuYasha scanned the path for any signs of brigands fleeing with their booty; nothing moved on the trail except a few birds, some squirrels, and a fox seeking water from the trail-side creek.

The scent of the fire grew stronger, and with it, the odors of all that burned in it: wood, flesh, leather, silk and blood. As they grew closer, the scent of blood and entrails became overpowering. Mingled with it was a youki tang of wild power being gathered and harnessed for some evil purpose.

Pushing on through the pass in pursuit of the smoke, they rounded a cliff and found a chaos of disemboweled bodies and spilled blood. The bodies of men, horses, dogs, even a falcon lay staring blindly into the sky as crows gathered to feast. InuYasha wrapped his sleeve around his nose to keep from passing out from the stench as he and Kirara landed, flushing the crows to the surrounding trees to watch sullenly as they inspected the scene of the massacre.

"Shit! What a mess," InuYasha growled as he looked around grimly.

Up close, the youki tang was unmistakable. Traces of wild magic swirled about the ground and hung over the dying fire and the bodies. InuYasha pressed his sleeve tighter over his nose and mouth as he inspected the scattered wares of the traders, then looked back at the ritually slain bodies. This was no robbery; this was a youkai using blood and horror to conjure a crude, but effective, powering-up spell. Now, he was going to have to find the bastard and get rid of him before anyone else got hurt.

"All right, Kirara, let's get out of here and see if we can pick up this creep's trail," InuYasha said.

Kirara yowled a protest and turned to paw at a man who was lying face down, rolling him over and sniffing him with concern.

"What do you have there?" InuYasha asked. He joined her and crouched by the man. "Huh. This one's alive."

It was hard to tell just how badly the man was hurt; was the blood coating him his own or someone else's? He was cold and clammy, slick with sweat and hyperventilating. He blinked up at InuYasha with widely dilated eyes and gasped, "So, you came back to finish the job, did you? Curse you, I... I curse you to the deepest Hell of all the Realms to roast spitted on a white-hot spear as you spitted us. May you stay there for eight times a thousand lifetimes for what you have done."

"Thank you so very much," InuYasha snarled. "Do you want me to rescue you or not?"

"Rescue me?" the man spat. "A monster like you?"

"Yeah, a monster like me," InuYasha retorted. "I'm feeling generous today, so I'll get you to safety before I take off after the real monster, the one that did this. Or would you rather remain with the crows?"

Kirara growled at InuYasha, tails lashing.

"What?"

She stared at him pointedly.

He glowered back for a moment, then said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's get moving. The sooner we drop this guy off with Kagome, the sooner we can get on with the demon hunt."

Kirara shook herself, then crouched down so that InuYasha could seat the man in front of him, then she took off back over the mountains toward the village.

"Where are you taking me?" the man asked wildly, looking down at the mountains falling away below him. "Who is this Kagome?"

"She's my wife," InuYasha replied. "We're going to my house."

The man stirred suddenly, forcing InuYasha to hold him tighter. "Hey, it's not like she's going to cook you for dinner. Will you get a grip?"

The man twisted back to look at InuYasha closer. "Who are you?" he asked. "I've heard stories..."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"There's supposed to be a demon lord near here named InuYasha who rules a hidden valley..."

"Hah! That one again? I'm no lord and I don't rule anything. I'm just the local protection service."

"But, you are InuYasha?"

"Yeah, I'm InuYasha."

"The stories are true."

"Listen, I've heard some of those stories, and I don't remember doing any of that crap."

"Then wh... I... I..." The man gasped, reeled in InuYasha's arms, then slumped to the side.

InuYasha gathered him in closer and cried, "Pick it up, Kirara, he's not looking good."

Kirara stretched out into a sprint, skimming over the last peaks and dropping quickly to land in the clearing before InuYasha's house.

"Kagome!" InuYasha shouted. "We need medical, now!"

Kagome glanced out the door at InuYasha, who was carrying the man toward the house.

"Oh, my." She snatched a clean comforter and spread it on the porch. "Put him here. The light's better." She ran into the house and came back with her medical kit. "What happened?"

"I don't know exactly. He's the only survivor of a massacre. Some demon came in and slaughtered a group of traders. Men, horses, everything, and left all the trade goods behind. I'm heading back up there to see if I can pick up the trail." He turned back to rejoin Kirara.

"Be careful, " Kagome called after him, but he was already in the air.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The man, Atsushi, faded in and out of consciousness as Kagome worked on him. He had some nasty gashes on his arms and head and he had lost a lot of blood, but to her great relief, she didn't find any sign of internal injuries. Even so, she had a long job ahead of her cleaning out all the wounds and making sure there was no debris left inside when she stitched him up.

Toushi kept her supplied with hot water and clean cloths and Nariko hovered beside her, somehow finding and pointing out all the places she had missed. Atsushi flinched every time he met their golden eyes and apprehensively studied the black dog ears peeking out of their hair when he thought no one was looking.

Kagome shooed the girls out into the meadow to play when she had finished stitching and bandaging. She cleaned her tools and put them in a jar of alcohol to soak, prepared a small amount of miso soup and a tea of sedating herbs for her patient, then settled herself to monitor him closely while he slept.

About mid-afternoon, Kimiko, the smith's wife, came up the hill and asked if InuYasha were available. The girls ran over to find out what was going on.

"I'm sorry, but he's out hunting a demon right now," Kagome replied. "Is it Michi-chan again?"

Kimiko blushed slightly and said, "I'm afraid so. Takao knocked over a pickle jar and I had to get some water from the well to clean it up. She was napping when I left, but when I got back, she was gone." Two-year-old Michi had a history of wandering off when Kimiko was distracted. The first couple of times, the entire village had been kicked into an uproar looking for her; now, it was easier and much less embarrassing to get InuYasha to track her down.

"I can find her, Mama," Toushi offered.

Kagome thought for a moment, then nodded her permission. Michi never went far; she just turned up in very odd places. Toushi shouldn't get into any trouble sniffing her out.

The starting place, of course, was Michi's bed. Toushi sniffed around, trying to find the freshest trail, then went out through the village. The trail got muddled by passers-by in the town square, forcing Toushi to carefully canvas the area. While she worked her way across the square, Kimiko made inquiries in the adjoining shops.

When Toushi was about a third of the way across the square, she realized she was just wasting time. Michi wasn't in the square; that meant she had left it and Toushi's best chance of finding the path again was somewhere along the perimeter. She found the trail again on the path that led through the persimmon orchard to the millet fields. She stood up and looked back through the square for Kimiko, but she was nowhere to be seen. Biting her lip, Toushi thought furiously about what she should do: get Kimiko-san, or just go find Michi-chan by herself. She had a feeling the little girl was in trouble so she decided to go after Michi without delay.

She was so intent on following Michi's trail that she jumped badly when a familiar voice said, "Hey, what are you doing out here?"

It was Tsuchiya and his gang of vermin-chasers.

"Michi-chan is lost again. I'm following her trail," Toushi explained.

"All the way out here?" cried Haru.

"We haven't seen anyone all day," Naoki declared.

"Are you sure about that trail?" Tsuchiya asked dubiously.

"Yes! You think just 'cause I'm a girl I can't find a trail? That is so stupid!"

"I've never even seen you try before," Tsuchiya remarked.

"You aren't exackly around all day either, are you?" Toushi retorted.

While Tsuchiya and Toushi bickered, Kourogi sniffed over the trail herself, then pushed between them and woofed.

"What?" Tsuchiya asked the dog.

Kourogi looked toward the forest and repeated her woof.

"It's good?" Tsuchiya asked incredulously.

Kourogi nodded.

Vindicated, Toushi sniffed righteously.

"OK, you can go home. We'll take over now." Tsuchiya declared.

"Who says you can find her better'n me?" Toushi demanded.

"Girls don't belong in the forest. That's men's work."

Toushi looked at him dubiously. Tsuchiya was tall for his age, but he was still just a skinny little boy. "You're not a man. You're just a kid, too. Why do you get to go in?"

"I got my sling, so I ..."

"The only thing you ever hit with that sling was Papa's head," Toushi declared.

Tsuchiya flushed. "That was two weeks ago! I been practicing. I'm a lot better now!"

Toushi stared at him through hard, narrowed eyes. She distinctly remembered it being nine days ago.

"Yeah, he's getting really good," Haru declared. "He's been hitting rabbits on the butt all day."

"You should see them run!" Taku snickered.

"That's really mean!" Toushi cried indignantly.

"Hey, we're supposed to chase them from the fields," Tsuchiya objected. "They don't come back so fast when I hit them with a rock."

"I still ..."

"Arf!"

Everyone looked at Kourogi, who was now well into the forest. She sniffed at the ground for a moment, looked deeper into the forest, then sat down and stared at Toushi and Tsuchiya impatiently. The message was obvious: _are we going to get on with this or what?_"

Tsuchiya told his buddies, "Be back in a while," then both Tsuchiya and Toushi hustled after Kourogi, still bickering.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the day grew hotter and the humidity soared, the stench of the mutilated bodies at the site of the massacre became overwhelming. InuYasha found himself growing lightheaded whenever the wind blew the stench in his direction. Since he couldn't search for his quarry's trail at the source, he was forced to canvas the perimeter.

It was proving frustrating. He found the traces of several excited bloodsuckers and fear-feeders, the youkai equivalent of the scavenging crows, but the actual cause of the massacre itself was obscured by the clouds of free-floating youki that flooded the area.

"Any luck, Kirara?" he asked, looking at the cat accompanying him. She was full youkai, maybe she could find something.

Kirara sneezed and shook herself.

"Tell me about it."

The unbound youki made his nose itch and his skin tingle. It rose from the bodies and the dying fire to drift across the ground, swirling in eddies when the wind blew and rippling as the scavengers fought over the choice bits.

He looked hopelessly around the area again - he couldn't see anything, hear anything, smell anything, feel anything. He didn't even have an intuition to follow. The worst part was, he had the nagging feeling he was missing something.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Are you going to release him soon?_" the River Woman asked Hachiman anxiously as she watched the field. As InuYasha floundered in his god-imposed quagmire, his children were wandering toward the source of the evil.

"_Not quite yet._" Hachiman had arrived earlier to touch base with the progress of the game and had seized the opportunity to do a little research of his own.

"_Do you have any idea how many things can go wrong? I have a lot invested in those children._"

"_I am aware. No one sees the multiplicity of possibilities like a War God; War breeds randomness. Still, it's time to find out what those children are made of, find out whether or not they can serve our purposes before we invest any more effort in this enterprise._"

"_But they're so young! How can you expect to find out anything useful when they don't know anything yet?_" Eight and six, the River Woman thought, they were just eight and six. What could Hachiman possibly learn from them now?

"_I expect to find out whether or not they are even worth training._"

"_Even worth_..." The River Woman gasped.

"_You are becoming too attached to these particular pieces. Don't forget they are here for a purpose. If they cannot meet that purpose, we must abandon them and seek others._" Hachiman moved closer to that portion of the field where the current drama was about to begin, and watched avidly.

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Kagome started to get uneasy as the shadows grew long. Toushi should have been back a long time ago. She wanted to go looking, but she could not leave Atsushi unattended and neither Nariko not Taiba were old enough to go looking for her. She tried to work her way through her normal late afternoon routine, cleaning Taiba up after his nap, laying out the food to be cooked for dinner, heating water for cooking and cleaning, but every rustle of leaves and creak in the house had her darting to the door to look outside. She felt some relief when Shippo finally turned up after a day in the forest training with his kitsune-sensei. Her voice quavered as she explained the situation; he immediately went down to the village to make inquiries.

It was worse than she feared; not only did Shippo not return with Toushi in tow, he reported that Tsuchiya and Kourogi were also missing. Shippo said Haru had told him that the three of them had followed Michi's apparent trail into the forest several hours earlier.

Thrills of panic tumbled through Kagome's stomach, leaving her queasy and light-headed. She sent Shippo to fetch Kaede while she strung her bow and loaded her quiver, seized a handful of prepared ofuda, then dithered over what else to take with her - medical kit? food? survival gear? Oh, how she wished InuYasha were here to handle this; he was faster, stronger and had keener senses than she did, but he was somewhere in the wilderness hunting a deadly demon, a demon she could only pray did not cross the children's path. She dumped medical supplies, matches, a knife and some snack crackers into a satchel with the ofuda.

Kaede brought a welcome air of competence and stability to the house when she arrived. Kagome briefed her on Atsushi's progress, pointed out the food she had laid out but not yet prepared, then added, "Taiba's cutting a tooth, so he'll be fussy and restless; I doubt he'll sleep so you'll have to watch him; if it gets real quiet, go find him, he's probably dismantling the house again; Nariko - Nariko gets up really cranky and you have to make sure she eats something or she'll make life absolutely Hell..."

"Kagome..." Shippo said.

"Oh, and if InuYasha turns up, let him know what's going on, we could really use his help..."

"Kagome..." Shippo repeated.

"...and if you can't handle the kids and Atsushi at the same time, get Sango to help you, she's had loads of experience with the kids and they'll listen to her and..."

"Kagome, you're babbling," Shippo said kindly, but firmly. "Come on, let's get going."

"Y'yeah." Kagome took a deep breath and steadied herself, saying a quick prayer before the family shrine, then led Shippo quickly out the door.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The River Woman hung further back so she could pace out her anxiety as the action unfolded. Off to the left, out of Hachiman's view, another piece took motion. The mother was beginning her pursuit. The River Woman said nothing, but continued to watch.

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Tracking proved to be an absorbing enterprise. Time dissolved as the three youngsters bent their entire minds to piecing together the living puzzle of tracing Michi's scent trail through the rich and varied odors of the forest. Pine trees, mouldering leaves, fungi and late-blooming flowers made a pungent background; stink bugs, and the territorial markers of the local foxes, martens, deer and boar all popped up to overwhelm the trail for short periods. They lost the trail several times and had to split up to find it again. Twice they found themselves backtracking over earlier ground and had go back to try again. The shadows lengthened, unnoticed, until finally they heard Michi a short ways ahead, giggling and singing, "Lalalalaaah. Oooo, pretty, pretty butterfly."

"There she is!" Toushi cried triumphantly. She started to push forward to join the girl. Kourogi caught the back of her shirt and pulled her back behind a large rock, where Tsuchiya joined them.

"What was that for?" Toushi asked the dog indignantly.

"Hrff," Kourogi said softly, then sniffed the air. Toushi and Tsuchiya followed suit. The air was laden with youki that tingled in their noses, making Tsuchiya sneeze abruptly.

"It smells funny." Toushi whispered.

"Yeah, but what is it?" Tsuchiya replied.

It was hard to sort it all out. Everyone sniffed the air again, concentrating. "Um, pig?" Toushi ventured.

"Yeah, there's that, but there's other stuff too." Tsuchiya closed his eyes and sniffed carefully, filtering the scents, then grabbed his nose before he could sneeze again. "Um, fish maybe? Or lizard... Or some weird plant... I, I dunno. I've never smelled anything like that before."

Whatever it was, Kourogi didn't like it. The fur on her back was standing up and her normally gaily-waving tail was tucked tight between her legs. She whined softly and looked back the way they had come, hoping they could just leave now.

Tsuchiya got down on his hands and knees and edged toward the side of the rock.

"What are you doing?" Toushi whispered.

"I want a look."

"Me, too." Toushi crawled beside him and peered out under his arm.

Michi was by herself, hopping around in the glowing twilight within a ring of mushrooms, waving her arms like she was chasing something. She laughed again and said, "Butterflies! Pretty!"

"I don't see any butterflies," Toushi whispered.

"Me neither," Tsuchiya agreed.

"Let's just get her and go. Mama's going to be really mad if we're out after dark." She got to her feet and walked briskly into the clearing and, taking Michi's hand, said, "Hi, Michi-chan. We've been looking all over for you. Come on, it's time to go home now." She tugged gently on Michi's hand to get her moving, but the girl just stood there. Annoyed, Toushi turned and looked her sternly in the eye. What she saw there was not Michi; Michi was the merest shadow in the background and what replaced her was vastly alien, cruel and hungry. Predatory interest flared in Michi's eyes as the alien creature regarded her, then reached out to seize her too. Frightened, Toushi instinctively *pushed* back, driving the creature out of Michi completely. Michi jerked awake, then burst into terrified tears.

Alarm surged through Toushi as the bushes on the far side of the clearing began to rustle. She grabbed Michi's hand tighter and bolted, dragging the smaller girl behind her.

"Hurry! Faster!" Tsuchiya yelled as something crashed through the underbrush behind them. He cast a couple of stones past them with his sling, then lunged to grab Michi's other hand. Between them, they half-dragged, half-carried Michi back into the depths of the forest to hide in a dense bamboo thicket, Kourogi hot on their heels.

Michi was now too breathless to scream, but she continued to weep miserably as she panted for breath. Toushi tried to comfort her while Tsuchiya and Kourogi looked keenly back for possible pursuit. The forest was very quiet; there was not even the rustlings of small animals in the underbrush. Then they heard the distant tramping of something large coming through the bushes.

"What's that?" Toushi asked tensely.

"Don't know," Tsuchiya said softly, still listening intently. The tramping was getting slowly closer.

"What are we gonna do?" Toushi whispered. "It's gonna find us if we stay here."

"I wanna go home," Michi whimpered.

"Me, too," Toushi said, looking around, "but which way is home?"

"Oh, it's that way," Tsuchiya said, pointing to his right.

Toushi's mind froze for a moment, suspended between relief and disbelief. "How do you know that?" she asked.

Tsuchiya shrugged. There wasn't any 'how' to it; he just knew.

Since they didn't have anything better to go on, Toushi took a shaky breath and said, "OK, so let's go that way."

"We gotta be really quiet," Tsuchiya said, "like we were sneaking back to base in 'Hide and Seek'. We can't let It find us."

"Yeah, really quiet. Michi-chan, can you do that?" Toushi added.

Michi nodded.

"I'll go first," Tsuchiya said. He stepped out of the thicket, looked and listened carefully for a moment, then waved the rest of them out.

"It's too dark," Michi whined. "I can't see."

"I'll help," Toushi said. "Here, hold my hand." She held her hand out, but Michi balked until Kourogi pushed her from behind with her nose.

Together, they glided out through the wide-set beeches that surrounded the bamboo thicket. The last light of the setting sun filtered through the leaves in patches, making a mottled gloaming of twilight and deep shadows. Tsuchiya and Toushi could see well enough, but Michi stumbled frequently, despite Toushi's help.

They left the beeches and started climbing a rocky hillock covered with fragrant pine trees. The footing became more difficult as they picked their way around craggy rocks and tripped on fallen branches. It was lighter here; the moon was rising and the pine needles cast smaller shadows. Down below, they could still hear It tramping through the maples away from them as It tracked their trail. They paused for a breathless minute to listen to It pass, then Tsuchiya led them on up the hill. Toushi and Michi followed as quietly as they could until Michi tripped over a branch and landed hard on the rocks. Her overstretched nerves shattered and she burst into tears, howling her misery to the night.

Nothing could have missed them then; their only hope lay in flight. Tsuchiya skidded back down the hill to join them, grabbing Michi's right arm, while Toushi snatched the left; both of them yanked Michi to her feet and they scrambled the rest of the way up the hill, sending rocks and pine cones tumbling down the hill behind them as they went.

"Rocks..." Tsuchiya muttered. He dropped Michi's arm and ran ahead to a bare rocky patch, then stooped to gather rocks for his sling.

Toushi struggled along as well as she could, but Michi was was more than she could manage alone. Behind them, It came crashing through the underbrush, then charged up the hill. Fear and adrenaline spiraled through Toushi until it erupted in a surge of fury. Pushing Michi toward Kourogi, she snarled, "Get her out of here!" then turned to fight.

Kourogi grabbed Michi by the front of her robe and bounded up the slope past Tsuchiya, fleeing along the path Tsuchiya had chosen for them.

'It' resolved in the moonlight to a gigantic man with boar's tusks and ears; he was carrying a spear whose head gleamed brightly in the moonlight. The boar-man thrust the spear at Toushi as he approached; she gasped and jumped back, falling on her back when a rock turned under her foot. A rock came whizzing down from above to crack into the boar-man's shoulder; he didn't even flinch. Toushi scrambled to her feet and glanced at his face. She saw the same disturbingly blank look that Michi had had while she was possessed and the same hungry alien gazing out at her through his eyes. She locked eyes with the alien and *pushed*, exorcising it as she had before.

The boar-man flinched and came back to himself, blinking slowly a moment as he got reoriented, then grinned maliciously at the little girl before him. "What's this? I do believe it's Dog-boy's puppy. I have uses for you." He reached out to grab her.

Toushi was so startled by the boar-man's unexpected malice that she lost her chance to escape. He caught her wrists while she gaped at him in horror. When he started to pull her closer, she dug in her heels and pulled back with all her might, then kicked at his shins when that failed.

"That won't work, girly," he said, lifting her completely off the ground and dangling her in front of his face. She writhed in his grasp and kicked at his face. Another missile shot in from above, a pine cone that shattered full in his face, spraying shards in his eyes and nose.

"Yaugh!" he roared, shaking the girl in his hands severely.

Terror rose through Toushi, resolving into another surge of fury. If she was going to die, she was going to take a piece of him with her. She pulled up sharply and fastened her teeth hard on the boar-man's forearm.

"You bitch!" he roared, flinging his arm wide to snap her loose. "No one does that to Kiba-maru and lives!" Toushi tumbled over the rocks and lay, dazed and gasping against a pine tree a few feet away from Tsuchiya.

Tsuchiya gaped at his sister for a couple of timeless moments, then snapped back to himself in time to sling a couple more rocks at the man below. Kiba-maru shrugged them off, then started climbing the slope toward the children.

"Toushi, come on!" Tsuchiya cried desperately at his sister. "We gotta run!"

Toushi coughed feebly a couple of times, then got her chest working again. Taking a couple of huge breaths to re-inflate her lungs, she scrambled to her feet and looked down the slope shakily as Tsuchiya launched another pine cone into Kiba-maru's face.

"Pine cones?" she shrilled as the pine cone shattered in the boar-man's face. "Why not rocks?"

"Cuz pine cones are working better," he replied as Kiba-maru halted his advance to shake the shards out of his eyes again. "Come on!" He led the way over a ridge, down the rocky slope on the other side, then plunged into a hazel thicket, Toushi hot on his heels. They ducked low under the branches until they had pushed their way to the other side, then ran across a meadow, splashed through a stream and scrambled up the far bank to find themselves in a large grove of beeches with rhododendrons growing thickly beneath them. Tsuchiya scrambled up a tree, then worked his way across the grove in the tree tops,then waited for his sister in the branches of a tree on the far side.

Toushi paused at the jump to the final tree and eyed the distance dubiously.

"It's easy," Tsuchiya said as he watched her waver. "You want that branch down there," he added, pointing.

"Oh!" Toushi recalculated the jump to factor in the extra hang time of aiming for a lower branch. "OK." She gathered herself and leapt out as far as she could, then landed gracelessly in the light branchlets at the end of the branch. She managed to hang on well enough to keep from falling, then clambered her way up to join her brother in looking out over the next bare patch they had to cross.

A moment later, she shuddered and gagged, then worked her mouth and spat a few times. "Ugh."

"What's wrong with your mouth?" Tsuchiya asked.

"I bit him to make him let go," Toushi replied, wrinkling her nose and spitting again. "He tasted awful and I can't get it out of my mouth. I don't think he's ever had a bath."

"Ewww." Tsuchiya's stomach twisted with disgust.

In the distance, they could hear the sound of something large rustling through the bushes. The sound was steadily coming closer,

Toushi looked back soberly, then said softly, "Are we going to get home OK?"

"Sure we are," Tsuchiya replied brightly, although a queasy feeling of doubt rose up in his stomach. Until now, he hadn't really considered a bad ending to their adventure, but Toushi's question made failure seem real and possible.

"Where are we? How far do we have to go?"

"I don't know. But home is that way." Tsuchiya pointed out across the open meadow that lay beyond their grove of trees. " If we run fast, we can make it across before he gets here."

Toushi looked across the wide meadow. There was something wrong in the meadow; she was sure of it. "We can't go that way. There's something bad there." Then she looked back into the forest, toward the sound of the steadily approaching boar-man. "I wish Papa was here." Papa could fix anything.

"Yeah."

"What should we do?"

"I guess we stay in the tree. Pigs can't climb trees."

"Neither can dogs," Toushi observed.

"Yeah, well, even if he can, he's so big he can't get up too far. We'll go to the top where he can't reach us."

Toushi didn't like it, but she didn't have anything better to offer. By unspoken consent, both of them climbed up into the high, small branches of the tree.

"If we stay real quiet, he may not even know we're here," Tsuchiya whispered as they clung to their respective branches.

Toushi swallowed hard and looked down through the leaves. One could only hope.

Tsuchiya's theory was predicated on the belief that anyone that smelled as bad as Kiba-maru did could not possibly smell anything else. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way. No matter what one thinks of a pig's pungent aroma, there is no denying that pigs find things very well indeed by smell. Kiba-maru had no difficulty at all in finding the tree where the children were hiding. Tsuchiya was correct in believing that Kiba-maru did not climb trees well; he did not, however, foresee the boar-man's answer to this problem. Since Kiba-maru could not come up the tree, he would simply bring the tree down to his level. He strode up to the massive beech, wrapped his arms around its trunk, and rocked the tree back and forth to loosen it so he could rip it up by its roots.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shippo was doing his best to follow the children's trail, but it was taking a long time. Kagome's stomach churned uncomfortably as she followed him through the twists and turns of their path through the forest. She kept telling herself they'd just find something innocent and stupid, but it wasn't working.

Shippo stopped in a clearing to puzzle out a spot where the children had doubled back twice, leaving a confused tangle to unravel. Muttering under his breath, he fished some leaves out of his pocket and cast them into the clearing to divine the last path taken. Kagome's heart raced suddenly; they were running out of time.

"Shippo, get us in the air. Now."

"But we'll lose the trail," he objected.

"Now."

He hesitated a moment, then transformed into his flying shape. Kagome swung onto his back as he rose up through the trees into the moonlit night.

"Do you even know what we're looking for?" he asked as they broke above the tree tops and looked down at the wilderness below.

That was a silly question. Nature had certain immutable laws, one of which was that Tsuchiya could always be found in the middle of a commotion. All Kagome had to do was get to a location where she could find the commotion.

The trees swayed in the gentle breeze, rustling softly, moths fluttered around them in the moonlight, an owl soared across a clearing, then wheeled back and struck at some small creature in the grass, all part of the normal nighttime drama of any forest.

"Let's go higher," Kagome urged. Shippo spiraled up until they could see the entire forested valley that rose above the village farmland. About halfway up the valley, a tree at the edge of a large meadow began to sway violently. Kagome could hear the branches crashing together and the sound of the trunk cracking under great force.

"Over there," she said, pointing. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and nocked it as Shippo swooped down for a closer look. They heard children wailing as the tree shuddered, snapped loudly, then started to drop into the forest. Two small, agile figures leapt from the branches into a neighboring tree, then continued to scramble from tree to tree as the creature that felled the first tree roared its frustration and crashed through the underbrush after them. Shippo followed their path as they flitted across the branches, looking for a break large enough to let him in close.

The children fled until they ran out of trees, then fetched up short in the branches of a large beech. Shippo still could not reach them and the large creature below would be there in seconds.

"Put down in the meadow," Kagome suggested. "They can run to us."

Shippo dropped to the ground as Kagome called, "Tsuchiya! Toushi! Run here quick!"

"Mama, no! Not the meadow!" Toushi cried.

"What?" Kagome glanced back quickly, but did not see anything odd. It would have to wait; the children's pursuer had arrived.

"You!" She recognized the boar-man immediately. She drew her bow in a surge of maternal rage; he had threatened her unborn child once before, and he was hunting her children again.

Kiba-maru paused and looked at the woman standing in the meadow with her bow drawn on him. This slip of a woman had taken him down? Incredible. No, impossible. It had to have been the dog.

"Get away from my children," she ordered him.

"Or what?" he sneered, reaching for the tree trunk.

She fired; her weirdly glowing arrow passed right through him and exploded behind his back, obliterating his youki gyre. He reeled and fell to his knees, panting, while a wave of dizziness rolled through him. He felt his senses dim and his strength bleed away until all that remained was his human core. Even stripped of his youki, he remained an immense man. When his vision cleared, he rose to his feet and flexed his shoulders menacingly, then strode toward her.

When Kagome reached for another arrow, she found her quiver was empty. Horrified, she rummaged around the quiver quickly, then searched the ground around her for dropped arrows. Nothing was there.

"Shippo?" No answer; even he was no longer there. Dropping the now-useless bow, she drew the knife Sango had pressed on her after the Sumio incident and prepared to sell her life dearly.

Unaccountably, Kiba-maru stopped when he entered the meadow, looking with terror at something behind her, then fled back into the forest.

At the same time, Tsuchiya jumped out of the tree and bolted past her, yelling "Leave my mother alone!"

"Tsuchiya! No! Come back here!" Kagome ordered as he flashed past. She spun after him and watched him vanish into a mesmerizing pattern of sparkling lights.

"Mama! Don't look!" Toushi's voice came distantly, as from the far end of a tunnel. Kagome wrenched her eyes away and looked into the forest in brief bewilderment. When her wits returned, she saw her bow was now gone too.

"Where's Tsuchiya?" she asked.

"He's in the middle of the meadow looking for something," Toushi answered.

"And Shippo?"

"It... it's got him, Mama," Toushi replied.

"What? How?"

"Just after you landed," Toushi said miserably. "He looked across the meadow and got caught."

"By what?"

"I don't know."

"How is it that you can look?"

"I don't know. Maybe it doesn't know I'm here."

Doesn't know she's there? What was different? Kagome thought furiously and decided it had to be because Toushi was still up in the tree, not touching the ground. "Stay in the tree!" Kagome ordered. "I need someone to guide me. I'm going in after them!"

"Mama, I'm scared!" Toushi wailed as Kagome pulled a kerchief from her pack and tied it across her eyes.

'So am I' was a bad thing to admit to a small child, so Kagome replied. "It'll be all right. Just do what I say. Can you see Tsuchiya or Shippo out there?"

"Um... Sort of..." Toushi said tentatively.

'Sort of.' Terrific. Just what she needed.

"It looks really weird over there, all ripply, like water," Toushi added.

It felt like that, too, like waves of power were distorting the air behind her. Kagome finished tying the cloth around her eyes and turned around, looking out across the meadow with her psychic third eye. If anything, the 'view' was even more disorienting. Kagome pointed out across the meadow toward the most heavily distorted area and asked, "What's over there?"

"There's a circle in the ground," Toushi replied. "The grass is taller and darker there and Shippo's in the middle."

So Shippo was the one who was in deeper danger. That was interesting. A strange sort of calm settled over Kagome as she moved toward Shippo to see what she could do. She might die, but this thing had to be done and she was the only one here who could do it. There was only room in her mind for the task at hand; she'd save the hysterics for later. One more deep breath settled her into her task-trance, then she strode toward the center of the meadow with great purpose.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Hachiman-ue has surely learned what he requires of these players_," The River Woman murmured softly as she stood at his side watching the field. "_Perhaps he will now see fit to release the sire._" She fervently hoped it was not too late to save the situation.

"_Hmph_." Hachiman continued to watch the meadow's drama avidly. He didn't even spare a glance at InuYasha.

The River Woman bit her lip and sighed silently. She has said as much as she dared.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

InuYasha's temper was getting the better of him. Patient, painstaking investigation did not come easily for him, and a thorough investigation without results was guaranteed to push his control to the snapping point. Kirara had wisely withdrawn to the edge of the clearing, where she lounged, watching InuYasha's frustration develop from a safe distance.

"Well, are you going to help or not?" InuYasha demanded, glaring at the big cat fiercely.

She flicked her ears and blinked - '_What good would it do?_'

"Quitter."

Kirara sighed and looked away; it was only slightly more discrete than rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, well, just because you..."

Kirara sat up abruptly, sniffed the air and sneezed.

InuYasha paused in his tirade. Something had changed, like a dirty window suddenly wiped clean. Scents he had not detected before filled his nose, rich, earthy and magical. He drew in a long, slow breath and let the air linger in his nose. Foremost in the melange was a scent from many years ago, a mixture of pig and man that he had thought dead and gone. Kiba-maru had been here. Behind it, there was something distinctly fungal, decaying, yet hungry.

"Heh! Now, that's more like it." Even so, a brief, uneasy thought bubbled up in the back of InuYasha's mind. How had he missed scents this obvious until now? What had just changed? He squashed the thought; now that he could take action, he wasn't going to let the unanswered hows and whys get in his way.

He returned to the camp's fire; this time he saw the ring of mushrooms around the fire. He sniffed around the circle and sifted through the fire's ashes. Yes, it had all started here. Kiba-maru had used the fire and blood to power up some weapon. Then it went wrong; something had been drawn in by the spilled blood, something subtler and much more powerful. It rose through the ground to feed on the blood, possessed Kiba-maru and turned the weapon-building spell into an orgy of bloodletting. The gods only knew where Kiba-maru had gone afterward in his bloody ecstasy. All that remained were ghostly remnants of the hungry tendrils of youki that had reached from the ground to ensnare the boar-man earlier.

"Shit. What did that asshole wake up? We'd better find him before there's another bloodbath."

There was something uncanny in the ease with which they followed Kiba-maru's trail through the forest. Underneath Kiba-maru's vivid scent, the earthy-fungal scent of the other power grew steadily stronger and more complex. InuYasha felt youki tendrils reaching into his mind to whisper about the rapture of blood pouring on the hungry earth.

Kirara squirmed restively under him as they flew on through the forest, then, without warning, she stopped her flight and shook him off into the trees and plunged, snarling, after his falling figure with her claws bared.

InuYasha landed in a beech tree, his fall partially broken by the leaves and twigs on the highest branches. He grabbed onto a stout bough as he passed it and straightened himself to make a controlled landing on the ground below.

"Kirara, what the Hell is up with you?" he yelled at the cat pursuing him.

She landed in front of him and turned blank, burning eyes on him, her mind lost to the youki bloodlust permeating the air.

"Shit." Stupid. If it was talking to him, it was talking to her, and she was much more susceptible. Now what? He wasn't exactly an exorcist. He didn't want to kill her, and leaving would look like fleeing, which would further excite her hunting instincts. Meanwhile, the once too familiar state of being hunted was exciting his own fighting instincts.

Blood. Fighting meant blood. He saw Kirara shredded before him, her blood flowing into the hungry ground...

"No! I won't let you have me," he shouted to the air. "And I won't kill a friend." He shook off the tendrils and tried to consider the situation rationally. He would have to disable her somehow, preferably without spilling blood. He could not use Tetsusaiga; it was a demon-slayer and a cutting tool. The youki permeating the area would heighten its reaction and he wasn't sure he could control it. That left slugging it out manually against a possessed demon-cat the size of a small horse. Wonderful. He was going to have to try to lure her in close enough to choke her or knock her out.

InuYasha rolled his shoulders, flexed his arms and cracked his neck to loosen up, then crouched on the balls of his feet, ready to move. "All right, come on, let's see if you can take me," he taunted the cat.

Kirara growled defiance, then crouched very low and slid to his left, ears back, belly close to the ground and tails lashing. InuYasha turned with her, keenly aware of her teeth and claws and wondered what else was in her arsenal. A moment later, he could feel her youki probing his, looking for weaknesses. She paused in her circling, glared at him through narrowed eyes, then feinted suddenly, swiping out with a lightning-fast paw.

InuYasha stepped back quickly, caught his heel in an unexpected hole, and went down. Heart pounding, he tucked tight and rolled back with it until he found his feet again, then surged back up, fully expecting to crash into several hundred pounds of charging cat.

Instead, he heard her anguished scream of pain. He flipped his hair back out of his eyes and looked up to see Kirara's side pierced with a glowing spear. Youki was spiraling out of her along the spear's shaft and feeding into a gigantic man who morphed into the boar-man hanyou, Kiba-maru. Kirara's form rippled, then collapsed into the small cat of her youki-dormant state as Kiba-maru extracted the last of her youki, then tossed her off the spear into the underbrush.

"Heh! There you are. Looks like I caught you before there was another blood bath," InuYasha said, drawing his sword.

"Stopping me won't stop the blood, Dog-boy. I'm not interested in blood."

"Oh? I saw what you just did to Kirara!"

"Kirara?"

"The cat."

"Heh. All I wanted was the cat's youki. Your miko-woman cleaned me out a while ago and I prefer not to wait until 'that' time. It is still awake and hungry and the sooner I can clear out of here, the better."

"You've tangled with Kagome? What did you do to the village?"

"Village! You didn't know? She's not in the village. She's here in the forest, right at the heart of Its lair, and I don't want to be anywhere near here when It gets her."

"Tell me where she is and I'll let you go this time, asshole."

"No problem, Dog-boy. I'd be more than pleased if It ate you, too. Just head that way. It'll find you soon enough."

InuYasha scooped up Kirara and bolted in the indicated direction. Something was very off about this story. Just what the Hell was Kagome doing in the forest? He'd left her fully occupied with caring for a critically injured man. It wasn't like her to abandon someone who so desperately needed her aid. A few minutes later, it came to him that he had not asked anything about what 'It' was. Too late now. He'd find out when he got there.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_I need someone to guide me._" Toushi tried, she really did, but when Mama walked into that twisted place in the middle of the meadow, she vanished. No matter how hard she tried, she could not see into it. No matter how hard she strained her ears and how hard she concentrated, she could make no sense of the sounds coming from it. There were voices, or rustles and creaks that sounded like voices. The words came in snatches, twenty people speaking at once, and she couldn't follow what they said.

"Mama?" she whispered while she watched the glimmering air in the meadow. "Please come out, Mama. I'm so scared."

The wind changed direction, bringing an unexpected, but very welcome scent to her nose. "Papa?" she said with dawning hope. "Papa!" she called out into the night air.

A moment later, InuYasha touched down on the branch beside her.

"Toushi! What are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for Mama. Is that Kirara? What happened to her?"

"She got speared by an asshole of a pig-man. Why did Mama bring you with her?"

"Poor Kirara! That's mean!"

"He's always been mean. Now, why did Mama bring you with her?"

"Why did he do that to do Kirara?"

InuYasha took a deep breath and counted to five while he fought down the impulse to shake the girl. "Toushi, focus. Why - did - Mama - bring - you -with - her?"

"Um, she didn't."

"What? Then how did you get out here?"

"Um, Tsuchiya and me came here looking for Michi-chan."

"What made you think Michi was out here?" In his experience, Michi had never left the village when she wandered from home.

"We followed her trail and found her here."

"OK, so where is she now?"

"Kourogi has her. I think they got away..." Toushi's voice trailed off uncertainly.

"And where's Tsuchiya?" What was it with kids that they couldn't ever volunteer anything useful?

"He's out there," Toushi replied, pointing into the meadow. "Like Mama."

So Kagome had come looking for the kids. It was starting to make sense now, not that InuYasha liked it.

"Aww, shit. Why does she do stuff like that? She's just a mortal . She's going to get herself killed."

"Papa, can you save her?" Toushi asked anxiously.

"Sure, of course I can. I am going to need someone to take care of Kirara for me while I'm gone. Can you do that for me?"

Toushi swallowed down her fears and looked up at InuYasha with tear-spangled eyes, then took Kirara on her lap. "Yes, Papa, I can do that." She did her best to stifle her sniffles and stroked Kirara gently.

"That's my brave girl. I'll be back soon." InuYasha gathered himself and leaped into the heart of the meadow.

Toushi watched him disappear into the meadow's miasma. Tears dripped down her face as she whispered, "I don't feel brave, Kirara. I'm scared."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Voices echoed around Kagome in snatches of half-heard conversations and choruses of song as she walked toward the center of the meadow. Fog swirled around her, punctuated with bursts of sparkling flashes and swarms of softly colored lights that swirled about like lazy fireflies. The air felt cool and damp as it brushed over her face and arms; it smelled earthy and fungal, yet strangely sweet. Time dissolved; she could no longer even guess how long she had been walking.

This wouldn't do. Like as not, the being in the center of the meadow had beguiled her into walking in circles. There had to be a way to pierce the fog. Shooting an arrow would have done it, but the being had already handily stolen her bow and arrows. What else did she have? Her hand drifted into her satchel and brushed the ofuda. Power tingled up her arm and the fog thinned. She gripped one of the paper strips tightly; the fog faded away and she found she was right at the edge of the strange dark circle Toushi had described seeing in the center of the meadow. A ring of mushrooms poked their heads up on the perimeter of the circle; the distortion seemed to be coming from them. Shippo was standing in the middle of the circle looking at her through strangely blank, glowing eyes.

"Shippo?" Kagome asked, "Can you hear me?"

Shippo looked toward her slowly. It was not Shippo that Kagome saw in his eyes: something ancient, vast, and profoundly alien looked back at her with cold, hungry, impersonal eyes, a being for whom she was only a bothersome mite of food that had so far evaded its proper fate. There was no sympathy or feeling in that gaze, no recognition of their kinship within the realm of the living.

A chill ran through Kagome; how was she to bargain for Shippo's release in the face of this? It wanted fed, nothing more, wanted only her life's blood and power to add to his.

A mad urge to step into the circle rose up in her mind. She should join Shippo, come within to meet her ordained fate. The ofuda in her hand tingled, giving her strength to ward off the influence. She seized another one for greater strength, and said, "No, I will talk to you out here. Surely there is something else you will accept in exchange for my friend."

Voices ran in circles around her head chattering with each other. _What is this 'friend'? There is food and not-food. There is food I/we have and food I/we do not have. This food speaks gibberish, in the manner of food. It is of no consequence._

"What are you?" Kagome asked.

There was an echoing silence of incomprehension and an internal urge to enter the circle. _Come within and find out_.

"No, I do not care to be food."

Images swam through Kagome's head of fallen and mouldering trees, the small, sad remains of mice and crickets, the larger remains of the greater animals and men, the spent shells of fallen youkai, all with diaphanous tendrils lacing through them and sprouting mushrooms erupting from their surfaces. _Little fool, all things are food in time._

"Not us. Not here. Not now. You have the entire forest to feed upon. We are too small to be of consequence. Let us go and you will still thrive."

Now came vivid images of the power of hot blood and fresh death spilled directly into the hungry earth that awakened exultant awareness. It was no longer content to wait for natural death to occur; it craved the heady surges culled from vibrant lives cut short and now actively hunted. Kagome caught flashes of other rings scattered throughout the forest as they snared unwary creatures and leached their lives away.

The diaphanous tendrils she had seen in her visions began to rise around Shippo's feet, spiraling up his legs and burrowing into his fur as the last shreds of his resistance dissolved under the great youkai's growing power.

"No!" she cried, casting an ofuda into the ring in a great flash of anger. It fluttered across the ring to land on Shippo's shoulder, where it clung, sizzling and crackling. Shippo gasped and shuddered under the onslaught of the conflicting forces within him, then dropped to his knees and painfully crawled toward Kagome. He collapsed as he reached the edge of the circle, one arm flung across the row of mushrooms defining it.

"Come on, Shippo, we're getting out of here," Kagome cried, grabbing his arm and dragging him free of the ring. She put him over her shoulder and turned to leave.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tsuchiya looked up from his search and grinned as Kagome pulled Shippo free and began her retreat. That was good, as far as it went, but he knew her most effective weapons were her bow and arrows, and they really could not be safe until he had found them. He had watched Mama's arrows get pilfered from her quiver by flickering tendrils rising from the ground as she confronted that huge boar-man and had seen the bow sink into the turf after she cast it aside to fight. The injustice of it infuriated him, and he had bolted into the meadow to recover them. Ever since then, he had been in a frantic chase across the meadow, pursuing the rustles and ripples in the turf that marked their progress. So far, he had recovered two arrows and just missed pouncing on the bow three times.

A flicker at the corner of his eye brought him back to his task; he leapt after it and wrestled another arrow free of the ground.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A shock wave rippled through the meadow as InuYasha landed. Fog closed in around him and shadows shifted and whispered in the fog, half seen, half heard.

InuYasha crouched lightly and sniffed the air, seeking more clues about what sort of creature haunted this meadow. The air was heavy with the scents of decay, earthy and fungal. The ozone smell of youki lay under the fungus as a base note, permeating the entire area. Gods, how big was this thing? He couldn't even pick out the edges of the gyre. He drew Tetsusaiga; the sword's aura illuminated the youki in the meadow, bringing its form into definition and highlighting its ponderous rotation.

The gyre condensed and sped up slightly; the fog around InuYasha thickened and filmy waving tendrils rose out of the ground in a circle around him. He could feel the soft, insistent press against his mind urging surrender. Tetsusaiga flared in defiance and the seductive whisper subsided. The tendrils grew thicker and small wormlike heads appeared on them that pulled at his clothing and hair and tried to work into his nose and ears. He swung Tetsusaiga in a low, flat circle, sheering off the heads. The shorn tendrils thickened to stalks and grew sharp-toothed snake heads that reared back, hissing, to strike at him. He sliced another circle around himself, harder and faster; the snake heads fell away and now the stalks grew to stout trunks topped with roaring dragon's heads. Tetsusaiga could not cut through them directly; he was forced to summon the Wind Scar. Dozens of dragons crumpled in the path of Tetsusaiga's blast, but the gyre generating the dragons absorbed most of the energy, then released it back at him in a jet of youki fire.

In a surge of pounding adrenalin, InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga over his head and released a Backlash Wave into the onrushing flames. The forces met in a massive explosion that blanketed most of the meadow, then the onrushing tide of the meadow monster's power overwhelmed even Tetsusaiga's best effort, surging over InuYasha to drown his will and possess his soul.

Toushi saw him drop in the battle's wild afterglow. She saw him rise again, with striped cheeks and glowing red eyes, howl out his craving for blood, then bound toward Kagome and Shippo, a mindless, rabid animal.

"Papa!" she gasped, horrified. She slid out of the tree and bolted across the meadow after InuYasha, heedless of her own danger.

Kagome, Shippo and Tsuchiya had been pitched into fissures ripped into the meadow when the Wind Scar roared past them. The fissures had saved them from the subsequent Backlash Wave, but now, they were closing in around them as the meadow healed.

Tsuchiya saw Kagome's bow laid bare in his fissure and cut his escape very close to wrestle it free of the soil. The earth closed in around his legs as he clambered out, forcing him to spend precious moments digging himself free.

Kagome threw Shippo out onto the grass and scrambled after him as her fissure closed in around her legs. She had scarcely gained her feet when InuYasha smashed into her and sent her flying. She landed hard on her back; InuYasha was at her throat before she had time even catch her breath.

"InuYasha! No!" she gasped, pushing him back with all her strength. Her wedding ring flared to life, invoking the protection oath InuYasha had sworn at their wedding.

Torn between the conflicting requirements of his possessor and his oath, InuYasha froze, trembling, then broke away to charge, howling, after Shippo.

Kagome rolled to her feet and ran after him, calling, "InuYasha! Stop! Don't hurt Shippo!"

Toushi reached Shippo first and stopped in front of him to face her father. InuYasha seized her, snarling, then froze. Toushi looked into his eyes and saw the alien monster again. Behind it, she saw her father fiercely fighting a losing battle against his possessor for control.

"Papa!" For a moment she was lost in horror, then the fury returned, and with it, the power. Toushi locked eyes with the alien and *pushed*, crying, "No! You can't have my Papa!"

Toushi drove the alien back, but here, at its center, it was much stronger than she was. She could not fully expel it, and began to lose ground as her fury faded and she grew tired.

Kagome had been alarmed when InuYasha bolted after Shippo; she was terrified when Toushi suddenly popped up in front of him. She sprinted hard after her husband, hoping only to knock him aside before he could hurt anyone.

"Mama! Mama! I have your bow!" Kagome looked to her right and saw Tsuchiya running towards her in a blaze of light, holding her bow in one hand and three arrows in the other. She skidded to a halt and snatched the bow from him as he met her, nocked an arrow and spun around, shouted, "SIT!" and fired.

InuYasha and Toushi crashed to the ground hard as Kagome's arrow whistled between InuYasha's ears to strike in the heart of great mushroom circle behind him and explode. The whole meadow lit as if lightning-struck, then the monster's presence was gone.

For a full minute, everyone remained still and silent, senses wide open as they scanned the night for the monster's return. Kagome finally lowered her bow and pulled free the arrow she had nocked for the next volley. The sounds of breathing, rustling clothes, and a few tentative crickets began to return the night to a normal late-summer night.

"Is it dead?" Shippo asked hopefully.

"No. It's too big for me to kill, but it's no longer aware. It sleeps again."

"Oh." That wasn't very reassuring.

InuYasha climbed back to his feet and ran his hand through the scorched hair between his ears. "Don't you think you cut that shot a little close?" he snarled. "You nearly scalped me."

"Oh! And nearly killing us all with Tetsusaiga doesn't count?" Kagome retorted.

"Keh! I tried just cutting, but it didn't work on the dragons."

"What dragons?" Kagome snapped. "There weren't any dragons."

"Are you fucking blind?" InuYasha yelled. "There was a whole ring of them!"

"No, there weren't. You were deluded. That thing fed you illusions to make you kill us. When that didn't work, it possessed you fully and tried again. Just be grateful I was here to save you."

"The only reason I was even here at all was to save you. You shouldn't be out here alone after dark! This is no place for mortals!"

"And yet it was the mortals that saved the day. You know, I had Shippo free and was working my way out when you barged in and fouled everything up!"

"Fouled everything up? You'd still be walking in circles if I hadn't arrived! Don't think I didn't see that!"

"At least I didn't blow half the forest away!"

Shippo watched the escalating fight with resignation, then turned to the children and said, "They could be at this for hours. Let's go home."

Toushi dragged her attention away from the fight, then her eyes widened. "Oh! I left Kirara in the tree." She darted back to get the cat and returned a moment later with her tucked in her shirt. Tsuchiya looked around the meadow, muttering, "Mama's arrows..."

"Leave them," Shippo said. "We'll get others."

Shippo pushed himself firmly between Kagome and InuYasha and announced, "We're going home."

He transformed to his flying form and everyone climbed aboard, Kagome and InuYasha still fighting.

A few minutes later, Kaede heard them set down in the meadow outside their house. By now, the fight had changed to the subject of Kagome's child management skills.

"I never gave them permission to leave the village!" Kagome protested. "I just sent Toushi along with Kimiko to find Michi. I thought she would stay with Kimiko! I thought Michi would be in the village!"

"Well, you thought wrong, didn't you?"

"She always was before!"

"And it took you how long to notice they were missing?"

"I ... I was taking care of a gravely injured man! He needed most of my attention!"

"These are our children. If you don't watch them, who will?"

"That's completely unfair! I can't be everywhere! I had to make a choice and at the time it seemed safe!"

"You sure got that wrong!"

"Shut up! Just - shut up! I don't want to talk to you again until you're ready to be reasonable!"

"Ha! Until I want to be reasonable? That's a good one. Let me know when you're ready to be reasonable. I'll be around."

Kagome gave a scream of pure frustration, then stormed through the door, looked at the doorway balefully, furious that there was nothing to slam, then stalked into her bedroom, snarling, "Gods, he's such a jerk!" Once inside, she slammed her bow into a corner and burst into tears.

For his part, InuYasha snarled something incoherent and jumped onto the roof, thumped around noisily kicking the roof weights around, then flopped onto his back, muttering curses to the night sky.

Kourogi turned up the following morning while the family was ostensibly at breakfast. Kagome and InuYasha still weren't speaking, so InuYasha found his breakfast perched on a window sill when he jumped down from the roof. Tsuchiya and Toushi were uncharacteristically silent and poked at their food without enthusiasm. They were still steeping in the realization that everything that had happened last night was their fault. In contrast, Nariko and Taiba were wound up by the atmosphere in the house; they vented their excess energy by throwing food and spoons at each other. Shippo was gone; he had eaten very quickly, then departed, saying he was going down the the village to check on Kirara and gather the news.

"Kourogi!" Kagome exclaimed. The dog looked at her warily.

"Where's Michi-chan? Did she get home OK?"

Kourogi nodded, still looking guarded.

"Did something else happen to her?" Kourogi thought about it, then shook her head no.

Kagome bit her lip. She wasn't sure she necessarily agreed with Kourogi's assessment of things. Maybe she should go visit Kimiko and check for herself.

Shippo saved her the trouble by turning up a short time later. "Sango says Kirara is still weak, but recovering," he reported. He handed over a couple of bundles and added, "Kaede sends these herbs to make a poultice for Atsushi's wounds and these to make a tea to calm his nerves."

Kagome winced as she took the herbs. Whatever other virtues her house had for healing, it really wasn't very restful.

Shippo finished with the news on Michi. "Kimiko-san says she's unhurt, but cries hysterically if she's ever out of her sight."

"Not too surprising, really, given what we found out there. I guess we don't need to worry about her wandering too far for a while," Kagome sighed.

Tsuchiya slid out of the house after breakfast and returned to guarding the fields. Toushi spent the day hiding behind her books. By dinnertime, although still unusually sober, they at least ate with good appetites.

Kagome and InuYasha danced around each other for the next three days. While Kagome cared for Atsushi, she often caught InuYasha leaning on the doorway, watching, although whenever their eyes met, he would snort softly and stalk out of sight.

On the morning of the fourth day, Kagome had changed Atsushi's dressings and was sterilizing cloth in a hot, herbed tea when she caught InuYasha at the doorway again. She resolutely refused to look, grumbling, "Why does it always have to be me? If he wants it so badly, why won't he make the first move?"

She fished the cloths out of the steaming poultice, wring them out and redressed Atsushi's wounds. They were healing cleanly, to her relief, and he was gaining strength. "How are you feeling? Shall we try some more substantial food?" she asked.

"Yes, please, miko-sama," he replied.

She started to help him sit, but InuYasha pushed in to carry Atsushi to the table. Kagome placed miso soup, custard and rice before Atsushi, then turned to brew tea. InuYasha had gone back out the door when she returned with the tea pot. She looked at the door, muttering, "That man..."

If she didn't do it, it wasn't going to happen. That hadn't changed in all the years she'd known him. "Excuse me, Atsushi-san. I'll be back shortly."

She found him on the porch, looking out toward the forest. She caught his sleeve when he started to leave and forced him to meet her eye. "Truce?"

He looked away for a moment, then snatched her in close, burying his face in her hair. He breathed in her scent for a time, then said, "I hate it when you scare me like that. Promise me you won't do that again."

Kagome sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but sometimes I don't have a choice. The kids were in trouble and there was no one else here who could help them."

He held her tighter and mumbled into her hair, "I'm not ready to lose you yet."

"Who says you will? I should be here for a long time."

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Hachiman vanished after the battle ended without saying a word to the River Woman. She did not seek him out immediately, not trusting herself to speak civilly for quite a while. In the end, though, she found herself obsessing about Hachiman's judgment of her charges to the point that she could not attend to the game.

She found him studying the dealings between Takeda Shingon and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

"_Would Hachiman-ue favor this small kami with his opinion of the pieces she cultivates? I must know if I will continue to tend them._"

"_They are worthy." _Hachiman said with satisfaction._ "They kept their heads and never took the coward's way out. It's time to find them a master." _

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Author's Note: _Yeah. I know. I've been gone for waaayy too long and I earnestly apologize. I actually had the main arc for this chapter written earlier, but had to revise it heavily to fit it to the story as it stands. I'm really going to have to work on shorter chapters - it makes the release schedule work so much better._


	60. Chapter 60 Rising Powers

Chapter 60 - Rising Powers

Summer rolled past as Atsushi healed in InuYasha's house. The days were still meltingly hot, but nighttime began to provide a welcome coolness as the first hints of Autumn arrived. Atsushi began to despair of ever fully healing. The woman, Kagome, was caring and skilled, but some poison from the attack lingered, leaving him weak and feverish.

The day began like most days. Atsushi heard the older boy, Tsuchiya, rustle around at the first hint of light in the east. From now until sunrise, the boy would fidget, poke about with various toys and prowl the porch, waiting for the moment when he was allowed to rouse the other members of the household. All bets were off, however, if someone inadvertently stirred and opened his eyes; Atsushi had learned this earlier when he had opened his eyes in curiosity at the morning sounds and had found himself faced with a bored, ridiculously energetic boy who bombarded him with questions about where he came from, what he did, where he was going and what happened in the attack, then regaled him with commentary about life in the village and its inhabitants and solicited his opinions on a number of topics Atsushi had never heard of before. Today, Atsushi kept his eyes closed, not feeling up to another session with Tsuchiya.

It was still more dark than light when Atsushi heard Tsuchiya exclaim, "Papa!" He heard InuYasha greet his son in return, then their footsteps on the porch. He sighed in relief, InuYasha would keep the boy occupied until the day properly began at sunrise.

The household became significantly more boisterous at sunrise as the rest of the household arose. Somehow, they made it all the way through breakfast without an eruption, then InuYasha commandeered Tsuchiya for the morning, intending to continue his lessons on how to fight. Kagome set the the girls to washing dishes while she sorted through her medical supplies for fresh dressings and ointments. She returned moments later to kneel beside Atsushi for his morning examination.

She looked at him critically for a moment, then asked, "So, how are you feeling this morning?"

"Pretty much like yesterday, Kagome-sama," he replied.

"Mmm, you're eyes are a little too bright and you still feel too warm," she said, testing his brow with the back of her hand. "I'm concerned about that lingering fever. Let's see how those gashes are faring."

There was some redness at the edges of the wounds and the areas around them were swollen and warm. "That's not so good," she muttered. "You're still fighting an infection."

"Do you think I'll recover, Kagome-sama?" Atsushi asked anxiously. It had already been three weeks.

"Yes, but it's taking longer than I like," she replied.

"I'm very late for my assignment," he said pensively. "Oda Nobunaga-sama will be very displeased. I should hate to have you work do hard to heal me just to have him execute me for the failure of my task."

"Can we send someone in your place?" she asked. "You're really not ready to travel."

"No! No," he cried. "This is highly confidential. I must do it, or no one."

"Hm. Kaede-sama knows more about herbs than I do," Kagome mused. "I think I'll consult with her to see what she can suggest."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Shippo?" she called. "Could you keep track of things for a while? I need to talk to Kaede."

The fox youth peeked out of his room at the far side of the house. "Um, sure. I'm not due in the woods until this afternoon."

It grew quiet in the house after the chores were finished. Shippo took the children out to the meadow to play while Kagome conferred with Kaede. Atsushi dozed off in the close heat of the house to the sound of a fly droning around the room. Some time later, he woke to Nariko's face hovering over his. His fever had gained strength while he slept and now he felt strangely detached from the world, like he was navigating a dream. Nariko brushed her little hand over his brow and said, "Poor Atsushi-san, you don't feel so good." Her golden eyes peered at him owlishly through her outlandish spectacles, examining him with great concern. "I make some medicine."

In his strange, dream-state, he watched her move to the jars of herbs her mother used for her concoctions, open them and sniff their contents carefully. She selected three, putting a couple of pinches of each in a mortar then running the pestle around, humming softly to herself. She tapped the crushed herbs into a tea bowl, then ladled hot water over them and stirred gently. A fresh, invigorating scent rose into the air while she stirred.

She returned to his side and said, "You must drink it while it's hot."

The fever had so muddled Atsushi's mind that he never once stopped to consider just how wise it was to accept a potion from one so young. The floating sensation made him believe he was still dreaming, that nothing would really happen if he took the offered drug. The fresh scent of the herbs filled his nose, relaxing his anxiety. He drank it down as instructed and fell back into a deep sleep.

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After the Kiba-Maru debacle, InuYasha decided Tsuchiya needed to improve his fighting skills considerably. It was a sore point between himself and Kagome; the last thing she felt they needed was another excuse for the unfriendly element in the village blame them for harm. InuYasha wasn't buying it; the boy did not have the tools to defend himself adequately in the forest and that was simply unacceptable.

"Son, if you're going to go into the forest, you have to be able to defend yourself. That sling may be able to make bunnies scamper off, but it won't get you anywhere with a hungry youkai. You need to be meaner and tougher than they are and you need to hit them at their youki core. I had to learn all this the hard way, when it was me or them. I think we can do better."

With that, he demonstrated what he could do when he let the youki flow through his claws. Tsuchiya had heard stories, but this was the first time he had really seen the Soul Reaver in action. He was duly impressed and eager to give it a try himself.

That's where it got tricky. InuYasha knew what to do, but he couldn't describe what he was doing to his son, who had never consciously felt his youki. Tsuchiya enthusiastically gouged up several tree trunks, but without youki behind his efforts, the trees just looked like a tiger had moved into the area.

"No, no, not like that! You're missing the point. We're not trying to claw up the trees, we're trying to tap your youki. Now, don't swing until you feel the power surge."

Tsuchiya squared off, closed his eyes and made a great show of digging deep down inside himself. After a few moments of this, he wound up and swung, gouging another chunk of bark off the tree before him.

"Right," InuYasha said with the exaggerated patience of the sorely tried. "Just what did you feel before you swung?"

"Um, nothing, really," Tsuchiya admitted.

"So why did you think that would work?"

"I dunno. I just hoped I'd get lucky?"

InuYasha sighed. It didn't help that just about every time he'd learned a spell, he'd had his back pushed hard against a wall and he'd been forced to get creative. So far, he'd just been lucky, too. The other thing that came to mind was that every time he learned something new, he'd been scared shitless and blazingly angry. Something about near-panic allowed him to tap deeply into his hidden resources, but surely that wasn't the way most youkai trained their young. If only the boy could feel the power, just once...

"Give me your hand," he said as a brainwave hit him.

"Huh?"

"Give me your hand," InuYasha repeated. He reached out impatiently when Tsuchiya wavered, then cupped the boy's hand in his own, his palm laid over the back of Tsuchiya's hand with their fingers in alignment. "Now, just pay attention to how your hand feels. I'm going to call up my youki for you."

He took a breath and slowly brought up the youki into his hand. The power weighed inside him, impatient for release. He kept a leash on it as he watched his son carefully for any sign of recognition.

"I just feel a buzz like when Mama fries my ears," Tsuchiya said. "It kinda hurts," he added, squirming free.

InuYasha blew out a breath, deeply frustrated. All Tsuchiya was feeling was the buzz of an impending attack. Internally, he was feeling lit up, floating and on fire with the power. None of that was leaking through to his son. He dampened down the youki, despite a blazing desire to let it rip loose.

"Papa?" Tsuchiya was watching him warily, aware of his urge to slash out in his frustration.

"OK, look, since you can't find your youki yet, we'll work on what we know you can do. Claws and fists can get you out of a lot of scrapes. All right, let's see if you can get me." InuYasha dropped back a few steps and crouched slightly in a ready stance. Tsuchiya charged straight at him, arms flailing. InuYasha dodged easily and shoved Tsuchiya while he was off balance, sending him sprawling.

"Hey! No fair!" Tsuchiya protested, spitting dust out of his mouth.

"First rule of fighting, there's no such thing as fair. If you think there's rules, you're just playing."

Tsuchiya climbed back to his feet and watched his father with sullen wariness. "I'm not supposed to hurt anyone in the village in a fight," he observed. "Mama said."

"There's a big difference between tussling with the other boys and fighting for your life. If you and Hari get into an argument and you wallop the shit out of him, I will not be very understanding. I'm talking about how to survive if Pigman decides he wants you for dinner. Now, let's pretend that I have fangs this long and claws thiiiis long and I want you for dinner. Try it again, and don't be afraid to hurt me."

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Atsushi woke up from his nap when InuYasha and Tsuchiya returned from their lesson. They caused quite a stir when they came through the door sporting an array of bruises, scratches and a couple of loosened teeth.

"Oh sweet Buddha, what did you run into?" Kagome gasped.

"Mostly each other, but we did mix it up a bit with a couple of trees and a big rock. He's actually getting pretty good with that damned sling. That bit where he was using pine cones as ammunition isn't as harebrained as I thought when I heard it the first time."

"I'm still not sure this is the time for this...," Kagome fussed.

"Kagome, at his age I was already fighting for my life every day. Do you have any idea what I would have given to find out how to do it without my life on the line?" he asked in exasperation.

She sighed. "This is different. We're both here, we have a place in this village..."

"And he still managed to find a way to lose himself way back in the forest in the dead of night. You know how nasty the night-youkai back there are as well as I do. He needs to know how to take care of himself."

As fascinating as this discussion was, Atsushi's attention was pulled away by the distinct feeling he was being watched. He looked away to find Nariko studying him solemnly.

"You're awake," she said.

He nodded. "Yes, I am."

Her gaze sharpened behind those enormous thick lenses. She walked closer and looked hard at his eyes, then swept her gaze over the rest of his body. "You're peaky," she declared. "You need good food."

Atsushi studied her uncertainly. Was she just mimicking her mother or was she really seeing something? He only vaguely remembered her dosing him with some concoction earlier, or had he dreamed that? He still wasn't sure. Still, there was nothing wrong with good food. "I'm sure good food would be helpful," he replied.

She turned decisively and marched to her mother. "Mama, can I make soup?"

Kagome was still mostly wrapped in her discussion with InuYasha and the task of cleaning cuts and scrapes. "Honestly,I just mended those," she said about Tsuchiya's tattered clothing.

Nariko tugged on her sleeve, then repeated, "Can I make soup?"

"Oh! Um, actually, that could be really helpful. I already made broth, so all you have to do is put it together." She turned to the kitchen counter and pulled down out some vegetables and miso. "I already had these cut up from lunch, so you're welcome to use these. Usually, there's three types. Heat them in the broth, then stir in the miso."

Kagome turned back to cleaning up the menfolk, fully aware she was setting herself up for a major mess. Still, Nariko could surprise her; the girl was remarkably neat and precise for someone her age.

Nariko considered the offerings placed before her. She selected the cake of tofu, the carrot flowers and the threadlike enoki mushrooms and put them in the simmering broth. She then disappeared into the stillroom for more ingredients. Atsushi watched as she then took a large soup bowl from a shelf and put in many of the contents from her foraging expedition. She crumbled some dried wakame seaweed into the bowl, crushed a clove of garlic and dropped it in, grated some ginger and added both it and its juice, dropped in a small dried chili and squeezed in a wedge of lemon, then placed the peel in, too. She examined her mess critically, then turned to the simmering broth, stirred in the miso and ladled two big scoops into the bowl. She stirred it gently, sniffed deeply, then finished by floating in a few leaves of spinach and breaking a egg into it.

The aroma of all those powerful herbs together was very pungent, prompting Tsuchiya to remark, "That smells weird! I'm not gonna eat that!"

"I didn't make it for you, stupid," Nariko said disdainfully. "Yours is over there." She pointed to the pot near the fire. She carried the special bowl to Atsushi and handed it to him, then stood before him, waiting expectantly.

Atsushi was no longer sure which of the two daughters was spookier, the elder who seemed to be able to see down through to his deepest, most secret, self, or the younger who was so earnestly playing, or perhaps not playing, healer. He smelled the pungent fumes rising from the soup and felt his sinuses open and sweat blossom on his brow. This was powerful, heady stuff. He took a sip and felt the warmth settle into his stomach and spread from there along his limbs until his feet and fingers tingled. He put the bowl down; if a sip could do that, he was not at all sure he wanted to know what the full bowl would do. Nariko still stood before him, watching him implacably. It was clear she wasn't going anywhere until he had finished his soup.

He decided it was safer not to fight Nariko, and meekly ate his soup. When he was done he felt like he could go wrestle a dragon single-handed. Fortunately, the feeling faded before he got up and did something foolish. Nevertheless, a residual warm glow which made his cheeks rosy persisted for many hours afterward.

"Eh, you look much better today, Atsushi-san," Kagome said the next morning. "I think you've turned the corner. It's marvelous what a good sleep can do for a person."

That day, for the first time, Atsushi felt strong enough to leave InuYasha's house and wander the village. The villagers watched him warily and bobbed deferent bows when he approached. He was accustomed to this treatment, well-dressed strangers were always a potential threat to the common born. Even so, he could not fail to notice the well nourished sturdiness of these people. They brimmed with energy and industry, their fields were fertile and well kept, their houses in good repair. Prosperous craftsmen worked on their wares at the edges of the village: a potter, a smith and a cabinet maker worked their crafts amid clay, smoke and wood with much scraping and banging. The village was too isolated to support an inn, so the men met in an old converted stillhouse next to the headman's house to drink sake, gossip and gamble in the evening.

InuYasha met him in the square, evidently returning from a meeting with the council.

"Heh. You're up."

"Yes, I think I am finally mending."

InuYasha looked him over a moment, assessing him. "That's good. I didn't tell you earlier, but I salvaged what I could from your party's possessions. They are waiting for you at the shrine."

Atsushi's head swam as memories of that dreadful day flashed through his mind. "I... Perhaps in a couple of days. I'm not sure I'm up to it quite yet."

"Whatever. You're the one who said you had an urgent assignment. I can't go through that stuff for you, I don't know what to look for."

"Yes... Yes... I know I must..." Atsushi sighed, wondering how he was going to summon the strength to face the harrowing job of picking through the remnants of that dreadful day. "I must prepare..."

He wandered back to the house in a daze. When he arrived, he startled Kagome with his pallor and distracted air. She made him sit down and checked him over quickly, then asked what had happened. He explained about his task of sorting through the salvaged articles of the caravan.

She smiled sympathetically. "You know, you don't have to go through them alone if you don't want to. I'll be happy to sit with you. I also have some soothing teas that may help ease your distress. After you're done, we can celebrate a memorial service for your companions to ease their souls."

There was nothing else to be done, so Atsushi accepted her offer gratefully. She concocted a special tea, and they drank it together in meditative silence, then Kagome guided Atsushi to the shrine and sat with him while he sorted through the salvaged goods telling stories about the people who had owned them. Most things he discarded as ruined beyond use or too painful to retain. Documents and gifts associated with his mission were sorted and sealed in a small chest, and he regained several of his own possessions: clothing, weapons, his horse's trappings, insignia of his rank, money, and a scattering of mementos.

He selected special items from his companions' possessions to over which to say the memorials; after the ceremony, he gave them to the shrine's keeping.

All that now remained was to gather his belongings and resume his mission. InuYasha was pressed into service to escort him to his destination, the Ashikaga Clan's main stronghold. Shippo provided air transport. The trip was largely uneventful, but their arrival at the Ashikaga Castle caused a great stir.

For all the outer world knew, Atsushi's party had vanished from the face of the Earth. Atsushi's return a few weeks later, in the company of a pair of youkai, with the extraordinary tale of having passed this time healing in a magical hidden valley fueled tremendous speculation. Many considered the tale a fanciful cover for a treasonous side trip. Others proclaimed the displeasure of the kami was evident in the fate of the diplomatic party. Most worried about the possible implications of a late return message to the Oda in their continued relations. The Ashikaga split into factions and quarreled among themselves, making Atsushi the the ball in their rough, political game.

Atsushi was in his element. He kept InuYasha close by his side to remind the skeptics that perhaps his fanciful tale was truer than the more mundane rumors being passed around. He sent Shippo out using his kitsune skills to prowl among the Ashikaga in disguise, collecting rumors and spreading others. Soon, the factions threatening Atsushi were fighting each other, not working to discredit him. While they were distracted, he took the opportunity to confer with the friendlier elements to hammer out the agreement the Oda were seeking. Shortly afterwards, Atsushi and a new diplomatic party were outfitted and sent on their way. InuYasha departed from the group as soon as they were safely through the mountains and finally returned home about two weeks later.

He sat on his porch the evening of his return and told Kagome all about it while she brushed out his hair.

"I do not see how people can live like that. What good is all that finery if you spend your whole life clawing at each other? I thought the stupid intrigues here were bad, but we've got nothing that compares with what goes on in a big castle. It kind of made Kaou look like a piker. Gods, I couldn't get out of there fast enough."

"Eh, when you think about it, there are blessings in a small life," Kagome replied.

Autumn was now upon them. After the usual buildup of anxiety while the farmers watched both the weather and the condition of the crops, praying Inari would let the grain ripen sufficiently before some fluke in the weather could ruin it, Harvest Day was finally under way. As usual, InuYasha was in charge of the heavy lifting and Kagome was running a field hospital handling work injuries and a couple of cases of heat exhaustion.

This year, Tsuchiya was on tool patrol, running from the smithy to the fields with freshly sharpened tools and returning with dull and damaged ones. After doing several laps, he took a break to visit the field kitchen for a couple of rice balls and a drink. He trotted through the yard that kept the babies and little kids safely caged, then stopped dead at the steps leading up to the field kitchen's porch to stare at Shippo, who was standing stock still among the pickle urns in the shade under the porch.

"Hi, Shippo, whatcha doin'?" he asked curiously.

"There he is!" Toushi cried. "I win!"

Shippo looked askance at Tsuchiya, then said drily, "Gee, thanks."

"What?" Tsuchiya asked, not at all sure what Shippo's problem was.

"It was working great until you came in," Shippo 'clarified.'

"Whatwas?" Tsuchiya could not think of a single thing he had done this time that could be considered the least bit offensive.

Shippo sighed heavily, then said, "We were playing Hide and Seek. Everyone else sees a pickle jar. Why don't you see a pickle jar?"

" 'Cause you don't look like a pickle jar. You just look like Shippo standing by the steps."

Shippo sighed again with long-suffering exasperation. "It works on everyone else. Why doesn't it work on you?"

Tsuchiya shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe you're just not very good."

"Everyone else. It works on everyone else!" Shippo was starting to rant.

"It does?" Tsuchiya said with great astonishment. "But, you're just standing there, plain as anything."

"Aargh! You! You're the only one who ever sees through it!"

"Um, OK." Tsuchiya said cautiously. "You don't have to get so mad."

"I'm not mad. I'm just frustrated."

"I'm sorry," Tsuchiya said, now at a loss about what he should say. "I guess." He wrinkled his nose, trying to think what he was guilty of.

"No, no, you're right. I'm the one who's deficient. I think I'll ask Donguri-sensei about it."

"Donguri-sensei? Who's that?" Tsuchiya asked.

"He's my magic-master."

"Oh!" Tsuchiya said, surprised again. "You have a magic-master?"

"Of course," Shippo replied. "Kitsune need lessons, too."

"Oh, so is that where you go when you're off in the forest?" Tsuchiya had often wondered what Shippo was up to when he was gone for hours at a time.

"Yeah. I'm doing really well, too. At least, until you come into the picture," he grumbled. "You're driving me crazy."

After harvest was complete, the family took a break, dropping through the well to visit modern times. After they got settled in, Kagome sat at the kitchen table catching up while Mama brewed tea.

"So, what's new?" she asked.

Mama poured water into the pot and put it on a tray with several mugs then carried to the table. "Not much. Grampa had a dizzy spell last week and the doctor put him on some heart medicine and told him to exercise more. Sota's studies are going well. Oh, and Toyo is getting married and we're all invited."

"That's nice," Kagome said. "Say hi to everyone for me."

"Actually, you and your family are specifically mentioned in the invitation."

"What! Are you sure? Why would he do that?" After that fiasco at the New Year celebration five years ago, Kagome had been quite sure that the rest of the family felt that the less they saw of her brood, the better.

"I imagine he thinks Ayigo's group will cut out early if you're there," Aunt Sakura said tartly. "Not a bad notion, really."

"Oh dear." So she and her family were changing from the family pariahs to a political weapon? She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Oh, come on, come with us," Sota said. "It'll be fun. You won't believe how stuffy all the family functions have been without you people to loosen things up."

Oh, right, nothing like a swath of destruction to liven up a party. "Sota-kun, is that really fair to Toyo-kun's fiancé? She and her family have no idea what's going to hit them when we arrive."

"Yeah, but they have met Ayigo and Yuki. Toyo told me all about it last week. They're up for almost anything that will scoot them out the door early."

"OK, Ayigo and Yuki will probably leave early, but beyond that I cannot make any guarantees about what might happen while we're there."

"It won't be boring."

"No, whatever else it may be, it's never boring," Kagome sighed.

Despite the fact that everyone knew Kagome's family was going to make a social sensation that had nothing to do with being part of the chic set, Mama made a project of creating at least an initial good impression. InuYasha and Kagome were measured and fitted for tasteful new suits and she dressed the boys in sharp trousers and collared shirts. For the girls, she obtained colorful kimonos and pretty silk flowers for their hair.

Kagome drilled them on manners and protocol until they could bow properly when introduced and they were flawless on their pleases and thank yous. Even so, there was only so much she could do in a couple of months' time and that feeling of impending disaster continued to hover in the background.

The day finally arrived. Mama met them in the wellhouse, looking anxious. "We're running late," she declared as Kagome took the smaller children from InuYasha's arms. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry, Mama," Kagome replied. "I was helping Kaede midwife a difficult birth."

"Well, at least you're here," Mama said. "We'll miss the train if you change here. You'll have to get dressed at the reception hall."

It was a cross-city trip to the wedding, Kagome recalled. It had been years since she had last tried an excursion across town with her brood, but the memory still brought ripples to her stomach. She could feel the onset of another major headache stirring already.

Mama noticed her cramped expression and said, "Oh it shouldn't be that bad. We have six adults and only four children."

There were times when Mama was optimistic to the point of being delusional. The rest of the family was much more realistic. Aunt Sakura took charge, assigning Sota and InuYasha the job of carrying all the clothes, then assigned each child to one of the remaining adults: Kagome got Taiba since she was the one most used to thwarting his busy fingers, Grampa got Toushi, who loved listening to his stories, Aunt Sakura took Nariko, for some reason she felt the need watch her closely, which left Mama saddled with Tsuchiya. Kagome privately thought Aunt Sakura was punishing Mama's unfounded optimism by handing her the guaranteed problem child.

The trip went about as expected; Tsuchiya got wound up in the train station, started hopping around and plowed into an elderly couple, bowling her over and stomping his toes. Toushi spooked at least three passengers by looking in their eyes while they rode across town. Taiba, despite Kagome's best efforts, managed to crack the lock on a businessman's briefcase and pop its clasps; when he got up at his stop, the contents of the briefcase cascaded into the aisle and under the seats. Nariko was a perfect angel.

They paraded out of the station at their stop and Mama haled taxis for the trip to the reception hall. A few minutes later, they were entering the lobby of a very posh hotel. Kagome looked around nervously as Mama inquired at the desk about where they should go.

"This way," she announced a moment later, leading her train toward a set of ballrooms.

The wedding manager met them in the hall and led them to a small suite a few floors up, remarking, "This is the bridal party's changing room. They're due back in about 20 minutes, but you should have time to clean up if you hurry."

Sota and Grampa herded the male contingent into one room with their clothes, while Mama and Aunt Sakura took charge of the female side. Mama laid out the clothes, saying, "You first, Kagome. I just need to slip on my dress and touch up my hair."

Kagome held up the suit and examined it critically. Mama had done well; it was a slate blue silk, the jacket was princess cut with a jewel neckline and elegant frog closures while the skirt was straight line with a set of pleats over her left thigh. A soft white blouse peeped out from inside the jacket and modern underclothes under it. A hair bow, black pumps and a handbag for motherly necessaries lay beside the shoes. She hadn't worn anything like this in ages, especially the stockings and the pumps. Thankfully, the heels were sensible.

She slipped into the clothes then retreated to the bathroom to work her hair, while Mama and Aunt Sakura began tucking the girls into their kimonos.

Rustles and murmurs came from the men's room as clothes were unpacked and put on.

Kagome heard Grampa's voice say something, then InuYasha said, "Absolutely not. It's not safe to leave it behind."

"Then why don't you take this off?"

"Believe me, that thing would have been buried years ago if I had any choice in the matter," InuYasha said drily.

Kagome gathered her hair at the nape of her neck and fastened the bow, then joined Mama and Aunt Sakura in investigating.

Grampa had on a traditional ensemble and Sota was now dressed in his interview suit. InuYasha was standing behind them facing the other way while he settled Tetsusaiga in his belt.

"Well, let's see," Kagome said brightly.

InuYasha turned to face her.

"Oh... my..."

The suit fit beautifully; it was very sophisticated, made of a subtly lustrous charcoal gray silk-wool blend in a herringbone weave. The crisp white shirt was topped with a maroon tie spangled with vivid yellow accents. He sported shiny oxfords and a fedora. The long white mane added a rakish edginess that saved him from stuffiness. But...

"Perhaps we should have gone with something more traditional," Mama said quizzically.

Tetsusaiga, in its quiescent state, always looked rather battered, but it looked particularly scruffy laying against the sumptuous fabric of InuYasha's suit. Still, it retained some sense of the rugged dignity of a well-used relic. The magic rosary, on the other hand, looked absolutely barbaric against the crisp cotton shirt and lustrous silk tie.

In these situations, Aunt Sakura could always be trusted to say what no one else would dare. "Boy, you look like a gangster."

InuYasha favored her with a withering glare while Sota bit his lip to keep from giggling.

"This getup was not my idea," he sniffed. "I still have my other clothes, which, by the way, are much more comfortable."

Crash-wump... "Uh-oh."

Tsuchiya had been waiting for the adults to get their act together in his usual fashion, which involved hopping and bouncing around the room heedlessly. He had just knocked over a vase of fresh flowers which landed on InuYasha's other clothes, soaking them thoroughly.

Mama swooped up the vase and flowers while Kagome held up the clothes. The bulk of the water had soaked into the pants, chiefly on the crotch. "Um, it looks like you're stuck with the suit."

Mama resettled the flowers in the vase and said, "Why don't you take him out to find something to do before he really breaks something? We'll finish cleaning up and dress the girls the rest of the way, then we'll find you at the reception."

"Um, yeah." The girls were generally easy to manage without the boys to wind them up. Kagome and the entire male contingent were ready to go, so Kagome fetched her handbag and loaded it with 'mom stuff' and set forth with the men to explore.

It was an open question which of her sons was going to generate the bigger catastrophe; Tsuchiya was bouncing on his toes with the general excitement of being in a strange place with new people and unfamiliar clothes. It was only a matter of time before all that pent-up energy exploded. Taiba could not have been more fascinated by the marvels surrounding him; there were escalators and automatic doors, automated signs with marching messages and little animated figures dancing on them, TV monitors, PA announcements floating through the air with no apparent source and ringing phones. He looked around wide-eyed and altogether too focused on marking the location of each new toy and grew restive in Kagome's arms.

"I found it!" Sota announced, pointing down a hallway to a set of open doors framed by a flower and balloon arch.

Kagome took a final breath to settle her nerves, smiled brightly, and said, "Shall we?"

They passed through the door together and looked around. A very large ballroom had been opened for the reception. The majority of the room was furnished with a scattering of round tables set for the banquet. Down the middle of the room was a long table holding hors d'oeuvres on platters. Two large flower arrangements were centered on this table, interspersed with platters of persimmons stacked in small pyramids. At one end of the room, a bar was already in full swing and at the other, a dance band was tuning up. InuYasha studied the band members suspiciously; their over-the-top clothing and vibrantly colored, spiky hairstyles had him sniffing the air for traces of youki. Sota followed his glare, then remarked, "Whoa, did they really land the Cherry Bombs? They're about the hottest techno-pop band in Tokyo this year!"

"Let's choose a table while we still can," Kagome said, looking over the tables, many of which already had fans and scarves on the seats, marking places. She moved to claim a table near the door in case they needed to make a quick exit. She rooted through her bag and turned up a teething ring, a bib and a small packet of crayons to claim seats. Sota laid out a set of business cards he was using for interviewing to reserve the rest of the table.

"Let's get some munchies," he suggested when he was done. "Mama had me going so many directions, I never got lunch. After I've had a bite, I'll see if I can find something to keep Tsu-chan occupied."

"Actually, food will keep him happy for a while. That boy is always hungry," Kagome remarked.

"Eh, Tsu-chan, do you want to help me choose some food?" Sota asked.

"Yeah!" Tsuchiya hopped over to join his uncle at the hors d'oeuvres table.

Taiba squealed and wriggled in Kagome's arms, struggling to get free and explore. The band particularly had his attention. The tech team had the sound board tuned and now they were working on the light show and he clearly wanted to get in the middle of it.

InuYasha continued to cast suspicious glances at the band while Kagome and Grampa greeted and exchanged small talk with some of the other relatives.

"I'm going over there for a closer look," he told her. "They just don't look right."

"I'm pretty sure they're just stage costumes," Sota remarked, returning with two laden plates of appetizers.

"You want to take Taiba with you?" Kagome asked. "He's been squirming like a freshly caught octopus ever since he saw them."

"Kagome, really?..."

"When you've decided it's safe," Kagome amended.

"You really assume too much when we visit here," he said as he set off purposefully toward the band.

"So do you," Kagome muttered under her breath as he left earshot. "Just different things. There really aren't that many youkai here."

"Eh?" Uncle Murata said, not catching what she said.

"Eh, it's not important. I'm just grumbling. Now, what were we talking about?"

The relatives didn't answer, they were still watching InuYasha's retreating form.

"Sota, where's Tsu-chan?" Kagome asked, suddenly noticing he had not returned with his uncle.

"He's still back at the table. When his plate started overflowing, I told him he was only allowed to have ten pieces until everyone else had had a chance. He's agonizing over what he's going to keep and what he has to put back."

"Oh. That should keep him busy for a while. I wonder what's taking Mama so long," Kagome remarked, looking toward the door. "The girls really aren't that hard to manage when Tsuchiya isn't there to wind them up."

"Oh, you have daughters too?" Aunt Aya said. Kagome could feel the near-shock that she had such a large brood. It was very unusual and considered rather irresponsible in modern times unless one was very wealthy and could afford to flaunt the normal constraints. Still no one could politely ask how they could afford to house and feed so many.

"Er, yes, I have two daughters, too," Kagome said, blushing slightly. "We weren't quite finished dressing them when the boys got disruptive and we had to give them something to do."

"How old are the girls?" Aunt Aya asked.

"Ah, let's see, Toushi is six and Nariko is nearly four. Mama just had to get them all dressed up for this. I wonder if I should go back and check on them."

"Bets they got all excited about the plumbing," Sota teased.

"More likely someone turned on the TV."

That got a chuckle out of everyone.

"Ah, Sota-kun, didn't Machiko say you had gotten a good job offer recently?" Uncle Murata asked.

Sota's face lit up with excitement. "Yeah, junior engineer at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and they'll pay my grad school expenses. Now I can go for that doctorate!"

"Oh, Sota, that's wonderful!" Kagome exclaimed. "Congratulations!"

Uncle Murata said, "I have a brother that lives near there. I'll call him and see what he can do to help you settle in up there."

"Thank you, that would be very helpful," Sota replied with an appreciative bow.

On the other side of the room, InuYasha moved in closer to the band. The roadies who were testing the installation warned him off saying, "Keep back, man. We've got some high voltage stuff here and we don't want to see anyone get hurt."

InuYasha nodded; he was close enough to learn what he wanted to know. The stage buzzed with an electric aura which came from all the boxes and panels. The smell of hot dust and ozone was emitted by the equipment, the workers smelled of sweat and cigarettes and energy drinks. Another sweet-sour smoke scented the air from behind the stage. Working carefully through the mingled scents, he determined all the youki-like emanations were coming from the equipment. The men scurrying about were ordinary men, there wasn't even a hint of reiki here.

Nevertheless, it was interesting watching them. Maybe he would bring Taiba over to watch. He had just about decided to turn when his internal alarms told him something dangerous was coming in from behind. He spun around abruptly to face a tall, bulky man with the deadest eyes he had ever seen in a living being accompanied by a woman he had met before, Kagome's obnoxious cousin, Yuki. Although still impeccably dressed and coifed, Yuki did not look like life had been treating her well. At their last meeting, she had had the arrogant, petulant air of a spoiled child; now she had a distinctly hard look about her, like life had slapped her around, flaying all the soft parts away until all that was left was her bitter core. InuYasha suspected Sharkeyes, here, had a lot to do with it.

"I haven't seen you around, before," Sharkeyes said. The intimidating undertone was unmistakable.

"Yeah, so? I'm not around that much," InuYasha replied.

"The boss don't like loose ends. Who're you working for?"

"No one you would know," InuYasha said dismissively. The thug was starting to get under his skin.

"Try me." Sharkeyes moved to where InuYasha could not gracefully move away.

Not in the habit of letting himself get pushed around by assholes, InuYasha picked the thug up and firmly placed him to the side, then started to walk away. Sharkeyes snatched his lapel and spun him around to face him, snarling, "We're not done yet."

"I am," InuYasha retorted, punching him in the jaw. As Sharkeyes crumpled at his feet, he muttered, "And people sayI'm a slow learner."

Yuki, apparently, was even slower. She leapt on InuYasha, scratching at his face and hissing, "Get off him, you creep! Dressing you up didn't make you any less of a beast!"

"And it didn't make you any less of a bitch," InuYasha returned, swooping her over one shoulder and her unconscious companion over the other. Yuki made a spectacle of herself screeching insults and threats as InuYasha carried her across the room in the direction of the drink station, where he had earlier seen her father working his way through the other guests.

Ayigo turned from his earnest conversation with a trapped-looking aristocratic man, and blanched as InuYasha approached and deposited his load at his feet.

"You may want to take them home," InuYasha said. "They've had enough for today."

Ayigo gaped like a goldfish, looking back and forth in shock between InuYasha and Yuki and her thug. "Aa... How... Wha..."

"Father, do something!" Yuki shrieked. "How can you just stand there while this ... this... I've never been so humiliated in my life!"

The aristocratic gentleman's eyebrows rose slightly, then he turned to InuYasha and said, "Perhaps we should leave Ayigo-san to manage his family troubles in peace. Would you do me the honor of joining me for some sake?"

"That works for me," InuYasha replied. He didn't care for Ayigo's company either.

Toushi and Nariko stood just outside the door to the ballroom and peered briefly through the door at the busy party. Toushi, in particular, felt a little reluctant to move in until she had found someone she knew inside. Grandma and Aunt Sakura were talking to the bride, who had come down with them.

Toushi bounced on her toes, torn between excitement at being so pretty and extreme self-consciousness at not looking or feeling like her everyday self. She wanted to show Papa, but first she had to find him.

"There's Mama," Nariko whispered, pointing to the table near the door where Kagome and Sota were still chatting with Aya and Murata. Toushi's ears drooped slightly under beribboned flowers that masked them. She wanted to show Papa first, and she didn't know the people talking to Mama and Uncle Sota, but it would be easier to find Papa from Mama's table.

Nariko frowned at Toushi's hesitation. "Come on, let's go," she said, pushing her from behind.

"Don't push me!" Toushi snapped, pushing back.

"Girls..." Aunt Sakura said sternly. They subsided at once. "Go see your mother and behave yourselves."

The girls bobbed apologetic bows to Aunt Sakura, then scampered in to present themselves to their mother.

Kagome had seen them arrive at the door, had witnessed the short tussle and observed with relief Aunt Sakura defusing them. Now she could enjoy Mama's handiwork. Toushi was decked out in a persimmon-orange kimono printed with gold and white flowers. Her obi was forest green with gold flowers woven into the brocade. Mama had found some persimmon colored silk flowers and woven them into Toushi's hair around her ears with gold and white ribbons, then used more ribbons to loosely catch her raven hair at the nape of her neck in a long, flowing ponytail. The colors served to highlight Toushi's golden eyes and brighten her cheeks. Nariko scarcely needed her eyes highlighted; the massive glasses actually needed subdued. Nariko was wearing a teal blue kimono printed with a wave motif that was bisected by an eye-popping fuchsia obi. Her hair was done with fuchsia flowers and blue ribbons.

"Oh, aren't you pretty!" she gushed, to their great pleasure.

"Let's have a look," Sota urged them. They faced him with shy, eager faces. "Now turn around." They wheeled around before their audience.

"Very nice," judged Aunt Aya.

"Mama, where's Papa?" Toushi asked anxiously. She still had not spotted him in the crowd.

Kagome and Sota looked around the room for InuYasha's distinctive white mane.

"Over there." Sota pointed across the room.

"Well I'll be," Aunt Aya exclaimed. "Is that Lord Fushima sitting beside him?"

"I think it is," Sota said. "His picture was in the paper last week. Some article about him sponsoring an art school."

"They seem to be getting along well, but I've got to wonder what those two could find to talk about," Kagome mused.

"Mama?" Toushi pleaded.

"Go ahead, but mind your manners. That is a very refined gentleman your papa is talking to and he won't like pushy little girls interrupting him."

"Yes, Mama." Toushi remembered Mama's training. She was to walk where she was going, not run, and she was to stand quietly near the person she wanted to talk to until she was recognized. She was to greet everyone there, then she could say what she came to say. She reviewed the rules in her head, then set off across the room at a dignified walk.

Tsuchiya finally made his last decision about his snack plate, keeping a cupcake and putting back a custard tart. He turned to leave and paused to watch an extraordinarily pretty girl in an orange kimono walk gracefully by. A moment later, the girl's scent drifted by his nose. Toushi? No way! His sister was a scruffy kid with a lopsided braid, a smudged face and well worn peasant's clothes. It was against all the laws of nature that she should be so exquisitely lovely. Of its own volition, his arm reached out to the stack of persimmons on the table and pitched one at her. The persimmon was fully ripe and squishy, and it splattered spectacularly on impact, leaving its sticky, sloppy mess in Toushi's hair and the back of her kimono.

Toushi stopped dead, frozen and shaking with shock. She hadn't even had a chance to show Papa before it all got ruined. A moment later, she snatched a flask of soy sauce from the table beside her and flung it at Tsuchiya with every ounce of her fury behind it.

Even the most psychically insensitive people in the room could feel the heat in that blast. InuYasha was the only one who had a hope of saving Tsuchiya. He launched himself across the room and tackled Tsuchiya, knocking him out of the flask's trajectory. Tetsusaiga tried to deflect her blast, but it was not built to fight reiki. Its scabbard shattered and the force of Toushi's fury rolled through InuYasha, scorching him deeply and stripping away most of his youki, leaving him gasping in agony on the floor.

"InuYasha!" Kagome ran to his aid as she had so many times in the past, followed by Sota and Mama.

"No, don't touch me," he gasped at her touch. "I can't absorb any more reiki right now." His hair shimmered ominously back and forth between a dull silver and steel gray as his youki gyre fought to regain its coherence.

"But... I have to do something," she said desperately. "What should I do?"

"Get my kimono. It's keyed to me and it's saturated with youki. That will have to do for now."

"I'm on it," Sota said, pushing through the building crowd.

People clustered ever closer around the fallen InuYasha. "What happened?" several people asked, craving their necks for a better view. "Is he all right?" others asked in concern. "Wait, wasn't his hair white earlier?" one particularly observant young man asked. Kagome swallowed hard, trying to figure out how to deflect that question.

"Move back please, let's give him some room to breathe..." Aunt Sakura whisked in leading the hotel's first aid staff with a gurney, shooed the guests back with professional dispatch, then arranged to have InuYasha wheeled out of the room. "Kagome-chan, you go with him. I'll send Sota after you when he returns. Makiko, Hikaru, round up the children..."

"Scabbard... pieces... Find them," InuYasha said as he was wheeled away.

"You heard him," Aunt Sakura told Tsuchiya, who was watching his father leave the room with wide-eyed shock.

"Er..." Tsuchiya blinked and tried to pull his mind back to this room and Aunt Sakura.

"We need to find the pieces of your father's scabbard. Get to it."

"Uhh...Oh!" The words finally penetrated the turmoil in Tsuchiya's head. There was something he could do. Find scabbard pieces. He was soon on the hunt, and a growing pile of lacquered wood shards built up on their table.

Nariko and Taiba were soon under control, Sota was directed to the small room off the lobby where InuYasha lay resting, but Mama and Grampa eventually had to report, "We can't find Toushi."

Sota returned to the party to report.

"How is he doing?"

"Still hurting, though the kimono seems to be helping some. He wants to see Toushi."

"We can't find her." It should have been easy to spot a little girl in a bright orange kimono, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"I'll go check the changing room," Mama said.

"I'm going to report her missing at the lobby," Sota said. "The staff can help us look."

They were worthy ideas, but Aunt Sakura felt they were on the wrong track. She watched them leave, then curled herself into a lotus position and took a deep breath, sinking down within herself.

"This is hardly the time to drop out for some meditation," Grampa complained, rousing Aunt Sakura from her silent spot. "Sitting there with your eyes closed isn't going to help us find Toushi any time soon."

"Nonsense, meditation is exactly what we need," Aunt Sakura shot back tartly. "Now let me think."

Aunt Sakura closed her eyes again and stilled her mind into the lambent clarity of deep meditation. Now, where would a distraught little youkai girl run when she had done something very bad? Her question floated gently in the void and she simply sat, waiting. A rustle of late falling leaves, cold brisk air and winter sunshine to cleanse a burdened soul. The girl was outside, somewhere, and Aunt Sakura's guide was on its way. She rose and walked toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Grampa asked.

"Out to get young Sakura," she replied. "I should be back shortly."

"Just like that?" Grampa snorted. "So where is she?"

"She is somewhere outside the building. I will know more soon." Aunt Sakura continued purposefully out the door, through the lobby and out the main entrance. A fire truck swept by as she stepped out of the building, its lights flashing. The truck traveled up the street two blocks, then turned left. Aunt Sakura hastened after it, chasing it to an abandoned building where a small orange figure huddled on a ledge several stories up. A small crowd of curious, concerned passersby watched from across the street as the firefighters raised their ladder and approached the miserable child.

"No, go away, I don't want you!" she cried as they got close, then sprang to her feet and nimbly climbed up two more stories to curl back up in her ball of misery. The crowd below gasped, anticipating a fall that did not occur, then murmured in surprise at the child's fearless agility.

Aunt Sakura looked at the tableau briefly, then marched up to the group of firefighters clustered at the ladder controls. "That child is my great niece. I would like to speak to her."

The firefighters exchanged glances, then one of them handed her the microphone to the truck's speakers, saying, "You push here to talk," indicating a button on its side.

"Yes, I see. Thank you." She pushed the button, then said, "Sakura, it's time to come down now. Hiding up there doesn't make it go away."

Toushi flinched. That had to be Aunt Sakura, she was the only person who still called her "Sakura." She thought about it for a moment then shook her head. She really didn't see how coming down was going to make anything better, either. She looked down at the little old woman on the sidewalk below and burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know that would happen!" she sobbed.

"No one else knew that you could do that either." There was a tiny bit of comfort in knowing it was a surprise to everyone else too, but...

"Is Papa... Is Papa all right?"

"He's well enough to be asking about you."

That was a relief, but Toushi still wasn't sure she could face him. What do you say to your father after you almost killed him? 'I'm sorry' just didn't seem like enough and everything else sounded like excuses. On the whole, sitting up here seemed safer.

"Sakura, these firefighters are not going to leave until you come down. If there is a fire while you are still up there, they won't be there to help. Do you want that?"

Toushi looked down at the fire truck with its flashing lights and its crew of men looking up at her. They really didn't look like they were going away any time soon. In fact, it looked like they were getting ready to come up after her. She decided she would rather come down herself than face the humiliation of being dragged down by a rescuer. Sighing unhappily, she regained her feet, trotted along the ledge until she was just above the ladder, then jumped. The crowd below gasped and the firefighter in the platform looked too startled to act as she plunged toward the basket, grabbed the rail around it and swung herself on board. A moment later, she descended the ladder, then jumped off the truck to the sidewalk. She presented herself to Aunt Sakura for judgment.

"Before we go, I think you should apologize for inconveniencing the firefighters."

Toushi nodded, then turned to the firefighters and bowed. "I apologize for making you come out here for nothing."

"We're just pleased you're safe," one of them said kindly.

His kindness made her uncomfortable. She bobbed another bow, then turned back to Aunt Sakura. "Can we go?"

"Yes, it's time to go now." Aunt Sakura thanked the firefighters, then took Toushi's hand and steered her back to the hotel. She reported Toushi had been found at the lobby desk then turned her over to Kagome for her visit with her father, telling her she wanted a final word with the child when they were done.

Aunt Sakura returned to the wedding reception, which, outside of a still somber table near the door, had resumed its festive mood. Food was being served, music was playing and the bridal party was doing the rounds, chatting with the guests and having their pictures taken with each table.

The Higurashi table met her with a swarm of anxious questions, which she fielded succinctly. Yes, she had found Toushi, yes, the girl was fine, right now she's with her parents. "I intend to have a word with her when she gets back," she remarked at the end of her report.

"Yeah, she sure messed things up," Tsuchiya remarked, poking at the pile of scabbard shards on the table.

"She wasn't the only one," Aunt Sakura reminded him. "This would be an excellent time for us to have our discussion. Come with me."

"Uh..."

Aunt Sakura drilled him with a stern glare. "If you hadn't thrown that persimmon in the first place, none of this would have happened. You must have known it would make her angry. You also know she is not the sort to just take an indignity like that. So, would you care to explain why you threw that persimmon?"

"Aa..."

"I thought as much. Perhaps you, young man, had better be sure you know why you do something before you do it."

"But..."

"Yes?" Aunt Sakura looked down her nose at him, eyebrows raised expectantly.

Tsuchiya gulped. Whatever he said had better be good. He didn't have anything good. "Um, nothing."

"Hmph. You are going to start training with me. It is time you learned to tell a useful impulse from a mad one."

"Er, yes, ma'am."

"I'll make arrangements with your mother later."

Tsuchiya was not looking forward to it. Aunt Sakura was easily the scariest old woman he knew.

Neither InuYasha nor Kagome gave Toushi the satisfaction of a severe scolding. InuYasha had feared that Toushi had done herself an injury in that psychic blast, and Kagome could tell the girl had been beating herself up far more than they could have done and decided not to push it any further. It all served to make Toushi feel even worse. Afterward, it took all the courage she had left to present herself for her interview with Aunt Sakura.

"Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Aunt Sakura asked.

The last of Toushi's control snapped, and she dissolved into tears and flung herself on Aunt Sakura's mercy to cry herself out.

"There now, what's done is done, and the harm will heal. Now, what have you learned?"

"I don't ever want to do that again!"

"What else?"

"I don't know..."

"Did you know you had so much power?"

Toushi shook her head, wide-eyed.

"Now you do. What about that power? Is it good or bad?"

"It's bad!" Toushi said fiercely. "I don't want it."

"Actually, it's neither. It's just power. It's how you use it that counts."

Toushi frowned, thinking that over. She still felt something that dangerous had to be bad.

"Your power is not the problem. It's your temper that is the problem. No one with as much power as you have can afford to let their temper escape them. I think, perhaps, you had better start training with me. Zen is the cultivation of the still spot within you that lets you use that great power with clarity and purpose."

Toushi had no idea what that last statement meant, but it at least sounded like Aunt Sakura believed she had a solution. Her eyes said she firmly believed she did.

"Um, OK."

"Very good. I will arrange a schedule with your mother."


	61. Chapter 61 Twisted Threads, Tangled Live

Chapter 61 - The Twisted Threads of Tangled Lives

Long, intense immersion in the Game had given the River Woman insights few could match. As she manipulated the flows of fate, she became aware of changes not caused by herself, her opponent or the individual wills of the pieces. In time, she found she could tell, by the idiosyncrasies of the actions, who the authors of the acts were. Several in her cabal were now becoming anxious as the crux inexorably approached; many were succumbing to the temptation to act themselves. She knew what some of them were about, Ebisu continued his campaign in Sumio's castle, Hachiman created havoc among several daimyos' training officers while he sought a suitable arms master, a long-quiescent marker in modern times had recently flared to life, but Emma-O seemed dissatisfied with his contributions and was now rooting around among the souls in his domain for more leverage, and Ryuujin had been noted opening discussions with the Sea Dogs. Inari was up to something, but she still had not divined his purpose. She smiled wryly, considering how fortuitous it was that Water was her principle, making her capable of riding with the flow, then guiding it toward her ends.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After the wedding, it became apparent that Tetsusaiga had been damaged beyond its ability to mend itself. It had developed a tendency to pop and throw off sparks at random moments and it wailed weirdly whenever InuYasha attempted to draw it. He managed to get the shattered scabbard repaired, but when he traveled to Toto-sai's smithy, he found the old smith had moved. He asked around the area, but no one seemed to know where he had gone.

The situation remained unresolved until InuYasha tried to use the sword on a routine extermination of a nest of marauding rat demons. He found he was unable to call up even the Wind Scar. The fight had turned ugly, and Miroku ultimately had to rescue him with a handful of ofuda and some of Sango's poisonous powders. InuYasha was laid up for a week recovering from the poison he had breathed in the thick of the fight. Realizing something had to be done, he set off to find Toto-sai's new smithy.

A few days later, InuYasha climbed the scorched slope of a volcano then stood on the rim of the crater to examine the blasted hollow below. Noxious fumes rose from hissing vents and heat shimmered from fissures ringing the lava pool that burbled sullenly in the center of the crater. If the rumors were correct, Toto-sai had set up his latest smithy somewhere down in that hellhole. It looked just up his alley; raw power still thrummed in the crater, electrifying the air and making the ground vibrate under his feet.

The volcano groaned and belched out another blast of sulfurous air; InuYasha blinked tears out of suddenly streaming eyes.

"Great. I'll bet my nose doesn't work for a week after this. Oh well, here's hoping..." He took a firmer grip of the sword and leapt down the wall of the crater, then hopped his way around the lake, leaping fissures and dodging still-molten lava pools. He pulled up at a glowing lava tube halfway up the other side of the crater and called in, "Yo! Toto-sai! Are you in there, old man?"

He only caught a glimpse of the little dot bouncing toward him, but there was no mistaking the sudden stinging itch on his neck. He slapped it sharply, then caught the flea as he fell. "Old Man Myoga, so this is where you've been hiding. If you're here, then so is Toto-sai."

InuYasha continued on into the cave, where he found Toto-sai glowering at him beside the hearth.

"Idiot! What have you done to Tetsusaiga this time?" Toto-sai howled. He snatched the sword from InuYasha's grasp and examined the metal, then held it at eye-level and looked down the length of the blade. "How did you manage to do this? It's lost its temper, it's warped in a spiral... " His eyes narrowed and he sniffed the blade. "Have you been fighting with Kagome again?"

"What? No! What makes you think that...?" InuYasha sputtered.

"Tetsusaiga reeks of reiki," Toto-sai declared.

"That wasn't Kagome."

"Who else do you know with that much reiki?" Myoga asked.

"As it turns out, my daughter does. Her brother pissed her off and she threw a flask of soy sauce at him. I could feel the reiki charge on it, so I knocked him out of the way and got hit myself."

"Daughter? Reiki? You're sure it's your daughter..." Toto-sai asked dubiously.

"Absolutely positive. She has the family ears," InuYasha snarled.

"And the family temper from the sounds of things," Myoga remarked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" InuYasha demanded.

"Oh, er, nothing, InuYasha-sama," Myoga faltered.

InuYasha glared at him suspiciously for a moment, then turned back to Toto-sai. "We were talking about the sword, not my family. Can you fix it or do I need to find someone else?"

Toto-sai pulled Tetsusaiga in closer and said, "I am the only one who can work on this sword."

"And...?" InuYasha asked pointedly.

"Oh! Er, well, let's see..." Toto-sai inspected Tetsusaiga carefully, peering at it from hilt to point, turning it to and fro to watch the light play over it, flicking it with a claw to listen to its ring, then heating a section to look at the colors. "Hmmm... Tetsusaiga has actually absorbed a portion of the reiki and made it part of itself. Problematic, of course; reiki is not compatible with youki... This is interesting; the reiki is delaminating the forging; it's making soft layers between the original forging... Hmmm... I wonder what would happen if I reforge... You might not want to stay here while I'm working, there are bound to be some explosions."

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Daruma was sitting in unmoving meditation, and he was also flying, buoyed by soft winds through fresh clouds to dance among the stars. The flickering lights swirled around him like fireflies, then gave way to darkness. He floated through the darkness for an unmeasured time, then met an aurora wall that undulated gently in the darkness. Below, he could hear the distant sound of waves lapping a shore, punctuated by the cries and groans of battered people. He didn't think to question why he would be hearing such things; he was so entranced by the beauty of the wall's shimmering colors. A mad impulse to touch it bubbled up in his head. He spread his arms wide and sailed along the wall, his fingertips leaving a trail of fiery sparks behind him. Another impulse pushed him to slide in closer, to slice his way into colors and become one with them...

_Yes... just a little farther... almost there..._

"Daruma-sama, please wake up."

_No! Not yet! I'm not through!_

"No... No..."

The colors faded into a bright white light that shone directly in his face. Two dark heads hung over him, then drew back to confer.

"He's so cold. I don't know if we can save him." A young woman's voice, anxious and uncertain.

"Keep him talking. Don't let him sleep." An older woman, competent with long experience.

"Daruma-sama, why were you meditating outside in a snowstorm? What good is enlightenment if you don't live to practice it?"

The words rang through him as mere sounds with no meaning; the colors clung to his mind more vividly than the two ghostly people who worked to save him. "So beautiful," he murmured with longing.

"What is so beautiful, Daruma-sama?" A woman's face hung over him again, her eyes locked on his, demanding his attention.

He looked through the steady gaze, beyond to something only he could see. "The colors, all around me, shimmering like silken rainbows, glowing and untouchable and I am part of them. I have to go back, it's very important."

"You have to rest here." That was the no-nonsense voice. "You very nearly froze to death with your foolishness. Even your august namesake had the sense to do his meditation indoors." Daruma felt the blankets covering him move aside, then several bundles were packed around him and the blankets were replaced. Heat seeped from the bundles. Daruma's stiff muscles unclenched in the rising heat, then he started shivering with a bone-rattling intensity.

"Sensei?" the younger woman asked fearfully.

"This is expected. He is shaking off the cold."

"Take them away!" Daruma howled, writhing within the blankets. "I'm burning up!"

"Are the bundles that hot?" the young woman asked anxiously.

"Not at all. It is only because he is so cold that it feels burning hot to him."

Daruma thrashed free of the blankets and tried to push aside the warming bundles.

"Now, you leave those be if you want to keep your fingers and toes," the older woman admonished him. "I can't help you if you insist on being difficult." She packed him back into the blankets and bound him in. "How is that soup coming on?" she asked, looking back to her assistant.

"I'm just stirring in the miso."

"Good. Let it cool to just under comfortably warm to your taste."

"Yes, sensei."

A few minutes later, they propped Daruma up and pushed a bowl to his mouth. Hot, salty liquid dribbled into his mouth. Daruma's body leapt for the warmth and nourishment while his spirit writhed in protest over being dragged back even farther from the wonders of the Beyond. "No, no..." he protested feebly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Muchitsujo-rei's frustration sent him howling across the Realms looking for some hapless victim on which to vent his anger. He had been so close. If the boy had clung to the wall just a moment longer, he could have slipped through into the Realm of the Dead and stolen the Jewel. As it was, he was going to have to wait until those meddling women stopped nursing Daruma.

But where? Sumio's debauchery was growing old, he wanted something fresher. Most of the rest of his markers were boringly utilitarian. Ah, yes, Kouri and her Dogs; he hadn't visited for a while.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Emma-O leaned against the doorway to a special chamber deep within his Hells, watching the man who occupied the chamber and considering whether or not he was right for this task. This man had dwelt in his personal Hell for millennia, unable to push through the horror of his past deeds, accept them, and move on. This was the necessary step to resuming his proper cycle of reincarnations. He did indeed have dreadful deeds in his past, but he also had unique abilities, abilities that Emma-O sometimes bent the rules to utilize.

"How long has it been this time?" the man asked, although he gave no other sign of being aware of Emma-O's presence.

"Five hundred year have passed for the living," Emma-O replied.

"Have they?" the man mused. "It always seems like nothing."

"It is. Nothing changes until you do."

"Mmm. What is it this time?"

"A kami has gone mad and needs to be restrained."

"Interesting. The usual terms?"

"Of course."

A moment later, the man asked, "May I ask a boon?"

"Ask," Emma-O replied.

"This time, I want to remember where I come from and why I'm there."

Emma-O blinked. "Why? I would have thought your time among the living to be a welcome respite."

"It's a deeply cruel kindness. The wrench of finding myself back here with those old unresolved memories flooding back is unendurable. I don't want to do it again."

"Very well. I will grant it."

"Your humble servant thanks you for your graciousness," the man said, turning from his insurmountable challenge and joining Emma-O for his journey back to life.

Emma-O led him out of his private corner of Hell, through the gentler portions of the Realm of the Dead to the shore where souls crossed between the Realms. The man looked about him as he went, noting the excess of mutilated souls wandering about in dazed confusion. They stood together at the beach, watching the refreshed souls jump into the water for their journey out while floods of the freshly dead washed pitifully ashore to begin their restoration.

"I will grant you this," the man said softly. "You never summon me for frivolous reasons."

Emma-O nodded, smiling sadly. He held out his hand and said, "Come."

The man's eyebrows rose in surprise. He usually jumped into the water like any other soul and let the currents take him where they would; where and to whom he was born really didn't matter.

"This time, I want you to go someplace special."

"Is it that bad?"

"Look again. Does this look like a normal balance? Not only are there too many young, strong people, they are deeply damaged by what they have seen and done, and must heal here longer than normal before they are fit to return. I have been forced to send unready people back to prevent too many animals from entering this phase of existence at once, but even that teeters the balance toward chaos, which only feeds our mad kami more. The situation is dangerously unstable."

The man took Emma-O's proffered hand and allowed him to conduct him to the Realm of the Living. They approached a modest manor house in a secluded valley. The house stood partway up a hill overlooking a small village. Nothing about this scene looked remarkable to the man. "How is this special?" he asked.

They drifted down from the sky then flowed through a shuttered window into a bedchamber, where a man and a woman cleaved tightly together, lost in the moment of love's ecstasy. A timeless moment later, they separated with gentle kisses and soft caresses.

From his current state, the man beside Emma-O could easily sense the swirl of reiki around the woman. He looked quizzically at Emma-O, and asked, "A miko? What's so special about a defiled miko?"

Emma-O simply smiled.

The man turned back as the first flash of sunlight touched the window and the woman's lover transformed into a man with youkai ancestry. His eyes widened in alarm. "What? How? Damn you, Emma-O, what are you putting me into?"

Emma-O pushed him toward the pair, watched as his chosen soul was pulled into the woman. He had done what he could do; he hoped it was enough. "Good luck," he called after his agent, just before he departed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inazuma sat watching her pups tussle in the yard, working off the wild energies aroused by the morning's earlier mock attack and chase exercise. She was pleased with the results. The attack had startled them, even frightened them when Inazuma pretended to be not quite capable of fighting off the attackers by herself. First, they ran and tried to hide, but when they realized their attackers could follow them easily, they regrouped and packed together, sharp little teeth facing in all directions, prepared to fight, when she swept back in with the servants and "rescued" them. Already, they clung together for strength; already they showed a fierce, fighting spirit. They truly had the foundations of a cohesive pack. She wondered what her mother would think of knowing this litter was under her tutelage. Hadn't she taken that wolf-wild litter of Yoarashi's and made them into a force to be reckoned with?

Her pleased mood was shattered when Kouri swept in in an icy fury.

"Just what did that little exercise supposedly gain us?" she snapped. "What possible point is there in leaving out the whole point of training them - winning a fight? There is a dangerous pack of Dog-human mongrels threatening our clan and I want them exterminated! So are you going to get with the program, or do I have to take over?"

Inazuma's temper rose in a wave. She asked with dangerous quietness, "Oh, is that all you want? A pack of cold-blooded assassins? I am aiming higher."

"What is that supposed to mean? War is war."

"Is it?" Inazuma pulled up short and cast wide her senses. It was back. Every time Kouri assaulted her in a rage, It was there, hovering, gloating, barely detectable, a malignant kami who had some unnatural interest in her litter. As much as she would have loved to explained Kouri's many failings to her, Inazuma wanted even more to keep this kami ignorant of her thoughts and intentions. She snapped her mouth shut and let Kouri have her way.

Kouri brought in a rat-demon which she released near the litter, then she goaded the pups into chasing it down and dismembering it, so they could get the thrill of the chase and the kill in their blood. Then she cooed over them, petting their fur and telling them what fine hunters they were. She patted Inazuma's cheek on her way out and said condescendingly, "There now, you see? I can get quick results. You really should listen more to the voice of experience."

The kami was still there, so Inazuma swallowed down her next biting comment, smiled submissively, and said, "Forgive me, I am such a fool."

"Of course, my dear."

Inazuma stood, silent and seething, for a long time after Kouri was gone. Her carefully laid foundation had been neatly destroyed at one stroke. How was she going to undo the damage? First things first though, she needed to settle them down. "Come, darlings," she said, clapping her hands. "It's bath time."

Karimaru caught her at the bathhouse, her mind still wrapped up in composing scenarios to repair her children's education. He caught her arm before she entered and pulled her firmly aside.

"What was with that performance in the training yard?" he demanded. "Was I wrong to call you 'Lady'?"

"Shh! Shhhh..." Inazuma spread her senses to their fullest extent, looking, listening, smelling, feeling... The kami was gone. "Can it be that the great all-seeing Karimaru has not noticed the kami that lurks here on occasion?" she asked sharply.

Karimaru paused and cast his own senses out cautiously.

"Never mind, it's gone now. Otherwise, I would not have mentioned it."

Karimaru watched her suspiciously; it could just be a clever feint on her part.

"Do you know who the Storm Dogs are?" she asked.

Karimaru blinked at the apparent non-sequitur. "The Storm Dogs are a clan based in the northern islands. They have a reputation for, er, being bold to the point of recklessness," he said, reciting a tamed-down distillation of the common gossip.

Inazuma laughed. "Delicately put, as always. I have heard the gossip - we're arrogant, overconfident, are completely lacking in any form of sensibility or prudence. There is no limit to our daring - we win big or fall hard and can't tell how to make a middle choice, so you'd be a fool to trust us. I've heard the stories about the Forest Dogs too, how they are second rate, how they always skulk in the protection of the bigger clans, how they don't have any moxie or drive... We both know how accurate that is.

"The Storm Dogs are not the wild-eyed savages you southerners make us out to be. We're Susa-no-o's hunting dogs. We run with him each storm season. You are nothing in our clan until you've run the Hunt, and we tend to use the same standards for Dogs outside of our clan, which makes us seem arrogant. I ran the Hunt for several seasons. The Hunt changes you; your notion of what is and is not possible is never the same after a season. One other thing comes of running the Hunt, you spend a lot of time in the company of the kami. I know kami: I know their ways and their signs.

"The kami that visits here has far more interest in my children than is natural. It is almost always around when Lady Kouri is being ... unreasonable. It hovers in the background and gloats whenever the Lady oversteps decent bounds, which is not normal for the kami I know. I would prefer that this kami does not know that I am aware of it. I would prefer that this kami thinks I am stupid and pliable, at least until I know what it seeks. I do not like being a piece in their little game, and I like it even less that they are dragging my children into it."

Damn the bitch, she had him off balance again. After all these months of dancing around each other and she suddenly dropped the mask and dumped more solid information on him in that brief speech than he had gotten from years of attending the various Courts. Had she finally decided to trust him, or was it all an elaborate fabrication? Karimaru rifled through the information thrust at him and latched onto one detail. "What kind of game are you talking about?"

"The God's Game. They use it to push us around and set our fates. I've never seen the real game, but I have seen practice sets. Certain kami used to bring them to post-Hunt revels and gamble with their friends. It's ... kind of like go, but the pieces are different. I was awarded a set after saving an inexperienced kami from a cloud vortex and I used to try myself with the kami, which amused them to no end. It is very difficult to play."

"Are you playing right now?"

"Eh?"

"Are you playing right now, telling me this now to enlist my support, sacrificing your children to hook the kami...? Are you playing the game with us right now?"

"Don't you get it? We're always playing, whether we know it or not! You can affect your fate though, if you catch on, if you have the imagination and guts to do something unexpected."

A shrill scream rose from the bathhouse, where Inazuma's maid, Sanjusan, was bathing the puppies in Inazuma's absence. Inazuma and Karimaru both bolted through the door to find that the puppies, led by the sole female, had started to play the rat-demon hunt game with Sanjusan as their quarry. They had her cornered at the back and were closing in, snarling and darting in to nip at her.

"NOOO!" Inazuma roared, lashing out with her lightning to stun the puppies long enough to drag them back away from Sanjusan. "Bad pups! You do not hurt Sanjusan!" The male pups fell back and huddled at her feet, cringing, but her little daughter lunged after Sanjusan again, unwilling to give up the prey.

Karimaru seized her by the scruff of the neck, shook her firmly, then raised her up to eye level. "What did your mother say?" he snarled at her.

She snarled back and nipped at his nose. Karimaru held her out to Inazuma and said, "I wouldn't wait too long to be surprising. You don't have much time left."

Inazuma dismissed Sanjusan for the rest of the day. The tanuki girl was much too distraught to manage her duties, and her near hysteria was likely to incite the puppies into attacking her again.

She didn't want to admit it to Karimaru just yet, but the bathhouse incident had left her badly shaken. He was quite right, she was going to have to seize control of the situation, and the sooner, the better. She had no particular qualms about jumping down Kouri's throat, but that kami worried her. It was a great deal more difficult to wrest free of their influence once they had Marked you.

She and her pups were mired in the situation in the palace, but she did have one pup that might still be unnoticed. She had to know.

The earlier excitement and a bellyful of food soon overcame the pups. They were huddled together in a heap, snoring softly. Inazuma scanned her suite one more time for lurkers, then pulled out her secret cache. She opened a small paper packet and looked at the carefully wound bits of hair within. Sanjusan, Karimaru, Kouri, Mother, ah - there it was, Sesshomaru. She rarely did hair magic, preferring to keep it in reserve, but today it offered her quickest access to her absent family.

She took Sesshomaru's hair and laid it across a mirror, then summoned up what he saw. The mirror flared, the image across it swam through a smear of colors then settled on a view of a small clearing beside a hot spring. A young woman stepped out of the spring's pool carrying a small silver-haired boy. She dried him off briskly. When she released him, the boy became a silver-gray puppy who snatched at the corner of the towel and tugged at it vigorously in an enthusiastic game of tug-of-war.

The woman indulged the puppy for a few laughing moments, then reeled him in and snatched him up to carry him to his father.

Inazuma dropped the image in shock and rage. While she had been enduring life under his icy mother and dealing with the unwelcome machinations of a malicious kami, her mate had found himself another woman. Blood will tell; after all, hadn't his father done the same thing? All he had ever wanted of her was the pup, he never had had a care for her. She crumpled down on a cushion for a long hard cry, and rose from it swearing retribution on her errant mate.

Like any injured dog, she found she could not stop worrying the wound. She became obsessed with catching snatches of Sesshomaru and the woman in her mirror. She kept watching with a sick fascination for some sign of intimacy or impropriety, but she never saw any. What she did see was the woman caring for her son with affection and competence and coaxing Sesshomaru into interacting with his son. Somehow, despite her obvious deference to him, she had a great deal of influence over Sesshomaru; he usually did what she urged. This little woman was building a family for her hidden son. Inazuma's rage became mixed with wistfulness; why couldn't she have had this fate?

Her next move was perhaps reckless, but she wanted a closer inspection, even if it had to be done vicariously. She took her pups on an excursion outside the palace walls. They raced about the sky above a broad mountain meadow, sniffed about through its intriguing scents tracking rabbits, then splashed in the water of a stream and dug in the mud at its bank. They all dug deep holes and stacked mud castles, then, worn out and happy, they made their way back to the palace. Inazuma had slipped one of her hairs and a snippet of Sesshomaru's into her mud castle. Three days later, she activated her puppet, formed it into her image, melded her senses with it and sent it out to seek Sesshomaru.

The snippet of Sesshomaru's hair worked as a homing beacon, drawing her puppet inexorably toward her mate. The first person it encountered was the woman, who was gathering herbs and greens to season a meal. The woman had just finished placing cut greens in a basket and was standing when she looked up and saw the puppet wearing Inazuma's aspect standing before her. She gasped and nearly dropped the basket, then bowed down low before the puppet.

"Woman, do you know who I am?" Inazuma asked through the puppet.

"N, no, great lady," she stammered, shaking her head.

So the cad had not even bothered to mention her existence. She ticked off another couple of marks against him. "I am Inazuma, Sesshomaru's rightful mate and you are standing in my place."

"I... Oh, no, I never... I..."

Sesshomaru's sword appeared suddenly, its point pressed tight to the puppet's throat. Inazuma had never before appreciated just how fast he could be. Her eyes slid to the side, down the length of the sword to Sesshomaru's hand, then on to Sesshomaru himself. He flicked a glance at the human woman, and told her, "Go."

She retreated quickly while Sesshomaru returned his attention to Inazuma and her puppet.

"So who is your little plaything?" Inazuma asked. She could smell the faint aura of sexual receptiveness floating about the woman and it provoked her.

Sesshomaru raised his free hand to strike her; she blocked the blow and pressed in closer. "Well?" she pressed.

"None of your business," he snarled.

"Oh, touchy. My mate is keeping company with another woman in my young son's presence and it's none of my business. I hardly think so. Your family has a history of these indiscretions, as your mother is so fond of reminding me."

"My mother is a bitter old woman who is blinded by her past."

"Bitter old women are not always wrong, and you are dodging the question. Who is she and what is she doing here?

"That... is Rin. She has been my companion for many years. She was with me before I even met you."

"That's Rin?" Inazuma asked with raised eyebrows. She glanced after the woman's path. "I was given to understand that she was a little girl."

"Little girls grow astonishingly quickly. She was still a girl when I left her in Karimaru's keeping. When I found her again, she was a woman. She returned to me to help care for our son."

"And you expect me to believe that's all? What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"A fool who would harm her son with her jealousy. Humans do not tempt me that way."

Inazuma looked askance at that statement. "Really? Then you won't mind if I inspect her."

"You may talk with her, but if you even look like you intend her any harm, I will destroy you."

Inazuma stopped short. "That's scarcely the way most Dogs talk to their mates."

"What I see before me is a mere puppet that can be destroyed with impunity. A word to the wise, though; I will remember your intent the next time I see you in person."

"Of course." It rankled, though. She felt a wave of sympathy for that miserable imp, Jaken.

"No, onee-chan, I don't like it," a small child wailed up ahead.

"Just a little bit, for me, ototo-chan. It will help you grow big and strong like Oto-san." The woman's voice was mildly exasperated, like this was a common occurrence.

Big Sister, Little Brother, is that how they were playing it? Inazuma walked around a rock to find Rin holding a bit of food on some chopsticks before the mouthy of a squirmy, pouty, little boy.

Sesshomaru frowned slightly at the ruckus. "No sassing your sister," he told the boy shortly. Rin looked up, looking unsure about what she should do with Inazuma present. Sesshomaru nodded for her to continue with the boy.

The boy wrinkled his nose in distaste, but opened his mouth obediently. Rin promptly popped the food in his mouth and picked up another bit. He looked at the reloaded chopsticks rebelliously.

"Two bites," Rin told him. He opened his mouth with resignation. Rin gave him the second bite, then wiped him off and released him.

He hung close to her, peering out from behind the safety of her legs as she turned once more to face Inazuma and Sesshomaru, bowing deeply. "Who is that, Onee-chan?" he asked.

"She is your okaa-san," Rin explained.

"She's pretty."

"I expect she would like it very much if you went and greeted her," Rin suggested.

"Will you come with me?"

"If you like." Rin held out her hand for him, and they went to greet Inazuma together. She put the boy in front and knelt down behind to lend her support, all the while watching Inazuma with apprehension.

Inazuma also crouched down to put herself at her son's level. "Hello, it's been a long time since I last saw you."

"Are you really my mother?"

"Yes, I am."

"Are you going to stay with us?"

"Not this time. I want to, but I have to guard and care for your siblings. I wanted to see how you are doing, get to know you a little. I think about you a lot."

"Oh." The boy was starting to lose interest.

"I'm very glad to see you're doing well," Inazuma said as he turned away.

Rin turned to go with him, but Inazuma detained her. Rin turned nervously to face her. Inazuma's eyes raked over her, her nose flared to take in the full range of scents around her and Sesshomaru. Even now, there were no signs of impropriety between them. Inazuma snorted softly, released Rin and pushed her back toward the boy. "Go. I want a private word with my mate."

"Satisfied?" Sesshomaru asked pointedly.

"Not completely," she replied. "It was a blow to check on our son and find you with a woman."

"Checking?" Sesshomaru bristled. "You gave him to me."

"I was making sure he was still hidden, that he hasn't been found."

"There's been no sign of Mother or any of her agents."

"We have bigger problems than that. You mother is being pushed around by a malignant kami, and it's starting to meddle with our pups. I wanted to make sure he, at least, was still unsullied."

"A kami? What do the kami want with us?"

"I really don't know. It's just the one. I keep catching it lurking in the background whenever your mother is raving. Last time she was carrying on about a Dog-Human mongrel pack that must be exterminated."

"Ridiculous. That's my brother she's raving about and he's thrown his lot with the humans. He has a human mate and has no interest in the Clans. His whelps are more human than Dog - they're even mortal. What could there be to fear from them?"

"That kami dislikes something about them, and it's willing to ruin our children to take them out. You must ensure this son is kept hidden and raised strong. He may be all we have when this is over. I have to go; someone is coming." Inazuma withdrew from the puppet; a moment later, only a heap of dried mud faced Sesshomaru.

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Hachiman was displeased. He had spent several months on an island-wide survey of the available talent in weapons masters, and he had only found one man he deemed suitable. Unfortunately, this man was securely entrenched as the highly-esteemed training officer of the Mouri Clan's elite officers. The Mouri were pleased with him and he was pleased with the Mouri. There was no convenient reason for this man to forsake his place and take to the road. A contrived reason would be easily detected in the Game field; that much was obvious from watching Muchitsujo-rei's moves. He needed help from the Game's expert.

He did not find the River Woman at her station on the Game field, so he sought her out. He found her communing with the waters of her headwater spring.

"Forgive me, madam, but I have need of your expertise," he said, standing at the edge of the pool and looking in.

The River Woman disengaged from her waters, flowed to the surface then rose, dripping, to stand beside him. It was very unusual to see him at a loss. "How may I serve the Honorable Hachiman?" she asked.

"I have found your youngsters a suitable master, but I need a reason for him to leave his current station."

The River Woman's eyebrows rose. "Would the Honorable Hachiman show me this master?"

Hachiman conducted her to the Mouri training field, where she watched a short, wiry, wizened man flit around a group of fully armored samurai, sharply correcting stances and grips, then setting them at each other in practice melees. To her unpracticed eye, he looked like any of the other competent arms masters she had seen.

"What is special about this one?" she asked.

"Watch what happens when one of these men stumbles," Hachiman replied.

As is inevitable in any melee, one of the men misstepped and fell. He tucked into a roll and returned to his feet in a flash, then pressed back at his attacker. In another melee, two men kept a skilled warrior distracted while a third man maneuvered behind him to strike him down.

"Forgive my ignorance, but I'm still not sure I see the difference," the River Woman said.

"Most arms masters teach the arts of single combat and how to die a poetic death when you are vanquished. This man teaches how to turn a misstep to your favor, how to fall and recover quickly, how to work in a group to quickly overcome an obstacle. I have decided these skills are much more important in this situation."

So, Hachiman had taken Inari's comments to heart after that debacle at the Zen master's hut. "These are skills normally practiced in the Dog Clans," the River Woman observed.

"Our opponent is too involved in the clans. He would notice it if I tapped a Dog master. The Dogs also incorporate transformations and flight in their maneuvers. We don't have that option."

Also, what Dog would consent to train a hanyou's litter?

"Very well, I will see what I can do."

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Toushi arrived at her grandmother's house for her next lesson with Aunt Sakura, then hesitated at the door. She had not had a good week and really wasn't sure she wanted to face Aunt Sakura's scrutiny. It seemed like all of her efforts to control herself just inspired Tsuchiya to try even harder to provoke her. The harder she tried to squash down her irritation, the angrier she got until everything blew up in a huge flash of temper. All she had to say for herself was that she hadn't scorched anyone recently.

The kitchen door slid open and Aunt Sakura looked out at her. "Ah, there you are."

Toushi swallowed hard and bowed, saying, "Um, yes, ma'am."

"So, how have you been?"

"Nnnnot so good," Toushi admitted sheepishly.

"Come tell me about it," Aunt Sakura said, ushering her into her room.

Toushi looked around the room, trying to avoid Aunt Sakura's glance. That was hard to do. The room was extremely austere; tatami mats carpeted the floor, a couple of bare wooden chests holding the bedding sat in a corner, an alcove in the back displayed a calligraphy scroll and a single branch of pussy willow in a vase, and there were two cushions and a table in the center of the room with a teapot and two mugs. Finally, she plopped down, sighing, onto one of the cushions and put her elbows on the table. Aunt Sakura sat down opposite her, watching her with keen interest, and just waited.

"Why does Tsuchiya have to be such a pest?" Toushi complained. "The harder I try to keep my temper, the more he picks on me. An' I've been trying so hard!"

"I never said it was going to be easy," Aunt Sakura reminded her, pouring them both a mug of tea. "How has the meditation practice been going?"

Toushi wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction. She wasn't sure if it was impossibly hard, or she was too dumb, but she really didn't get what Aunt Sakura was asking her to do. "It's stupid," she pouted. "I don't get it. How are you supposed to stop thinking things?"

"Once again, I never said it was going to be easy. It's not so much about stomping on your thoughts as it is about letting them go."

Toushi frowned suspiciously at the old woman. That really didn't make sense. "But they just keep coming," she objected.

"Yes, they do do that, and they all want your attention. I find it easier to give each of them a little pat on the head then send them on outside to play."

Toushi continued to look at her dubiously. How could you control something if you didn't contain it?

"Let's pretend you have crickets in your room, and they're all chirping," Aunt Sakura suggested.

"OK." Toushi couldn't see where this was going, but she was willing to play along.

"So what are you going to do? There are all these crickets, chirp-chirping here and chirp-chirping there and you can't hear yourself think. All you want is a little quiet. What you are doing is catching those crickets and popping them in a box. And then what happens? You have a boxful of crickets and they're all chirping together and making the box bounce around by jumping in it. Now it's even noisier than it was before."

Toushi nodded. She had chased enough crickets in her time to picture it.

"Suppose, instead of putting the crickets in a box, you took them to the window and let them go. They hop outside and go chirp out there, but they're far enough away that they don't bother you any more. Slowly, your room gets quieter, and you have room to do your real work."

Toushi liked the cricket metaphor, it was vivid and fun, but the more she thought about it, the more holes it got. She didn't have crickets, she had busy thoughts. She could catch crickets and put them out, but what about feelings and worries and stuff she suddenly remembered she had to do? That wasn't so easy. She bit her lip, suddenly convinced there was no way she could ever do this.

"I can't do it," she declared flatly.

"Hmph. You aren't even trying."

"Yes I am!" Toushi snapped back in a flare of temper. "I'm just too stupid to do it right!"

"Nonsense. You're doing fine. There's a reason it's called 'practice'."

"OK, so how long do I need to practice before I get it right?"

"I have absolutely no idea. Everyone needs to figure it out for themselves. I can give you clues, but you need to find your own path."

Hopeless frustration surged through Toushi. Every time she came here, she felt more adrift in an uncharted fog than the time before. Didn't Aunt Sakura have anything concrete to work with? She tried to swallow the huge lump in her throat, but it just got bigger. "But I don't know how to practice," she wailed. "I already told you!"

"You do, too, know how to practice. Nothing has changed. Finish your tea and we'll practice together, just like before."

"But it doesn't work," Toushi said obstinately.

"Of course not. You've barely started to learn."

Aaaaugh! With great difficulty, Toushi resisted the urge to throw her tea mug against the wall. Instead, she gripped it so tightly it shattered in her hand, slicing her thumb and splashing hot tea everywhere.

Aunt Sakura mopped up the mess and bandaged her thumb, but refused to let that get in the way of the lesson. In stark contrast to the vagueness of her instruction on how to manage thoughts, she was an exacting task master in how to sit properly and how to breathe. It wasn't enough to sit cross legged, she had to have her feet just so on her knees, had to push her hips forward, had to pull her shoulders down and back. She was slumping, so she had to stretch the top of her head toward the ceiling; her chin was too low, she had to lift it up a bit more; now her head was tilting to the side, straighten up and drop that shoulder. Breathing needed to come from below her navel, long and deep, and she needed to hold it for a time after each inhalation. For now, they would simply count breaths. What possible use was there to counting breaths? If any other thought bubbled up in her head, she was to gently send it out, like a cricket out of her room.

The session lasted all of ten minutes, and Toushi felt like a complete failure by the time it was over. She couldn't even count to three before some mad thought bubbled up and she totally lost her concentration. And they were such dumb thoughts: Does Papa like crackers or shrimp puffs better? Would Aunt Sakura let her touch the pussy willow? What was she supposed to do if her nose itched? Oh, geez, she had totally forgotten to put take the vegetable peelings out to the trash heap before she left home. Mama was going to so on her back about that. Why was it so hard to put them out like crickets? It wasn't like they were at all important, but still, once they were there, they continued to buzz around her head until she suddenly remembered she was supposed to be counting. She was never going to get this right.

When the two of them emerged from the lesson, Aunt Sakura looked fresh and tranquil and Toushi looked exasperated and ill-tempered.

"How did your lesson go?" Grandma asked Toushi.

"Terrible," she grumbled.

"It went fine," Aunt Sakura contradicted.

"No it didn't!" Toushi flared. "I can't even count to three before blowing it!"

"Ah, but you noticed it. For now, that is good progress. Practice what I showed you once a day and I will see you again in three days."

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	62. Chapter 62 Tinker Boy

Chapter 62 - Tinker Boy

Kagome had known what she was getting into when she married InuYasha. She knew all about his volatile temper, his moodiness and his impatience. What she had not factored into her image of the future was rambunctious children and morning sickness. Her self-control was at a low point this morning; Tsuchiya had pushed Nariko's buttons while she was still in her early-morning foul temper, Taiba had dismantled her apothecary scale while she fetched the herbs needed to concoct a cough syrup for the whooping cough epidemic that was running through the village, and the scent of the herbs was making her even more queasy as she sorted them and laid them out to begin.

InuYasha blew into the kitchen after his morning round and immediately launched into today's diatribe about how Toto-sai was dawdling with his sword.

"He's trying to get back at me. He's got to be. There's no way it could possibly take this long to repair Tetsusaiga."

"InuYasha-sama, I assure you Toto-sai is working diligently," Myoga said earnestly. Myoga had grown tired of the excessively sulfurous atmosphere of the volcano's caldera and had returned with InuYasha for a change of scenery.

"He'll show up when it's done," Kagome said soothingly as she squinted at the tiny screws that held together her scale and tried to line up the one holding the balance bar. "He always has in the past."

"He's never taken this long!" InuYasha snarled, slamming a fist down on the table.

Scale parts scattered as Kagome jumped at the sound of InuYasha's fist. The tiny screw bounced across the table and off on the far side.

"Gee, thanks!" she hissed.

"What?"

"What? I just lost the screw and..."

"Oh, you lost your screw," he sneered. "The world is about to end."

Another wave of nausea swept through her as she got down on her hands and knees to look for the screw. "Look, I know you're anxious to get Tetsusaiga back," she snapped, "but I'm getting really tired of you taking it out on the rest of us. Could you please start acting like an adult instead of a three-year old?"

"THREE-year-old!" InuYasha roared. "Tetsusaiga is the only protection this household has and somehow I'm supposed to think it's just fine that it's out there somewhere getting fixed sometime, supposedly this century? What if something too big for me shows up and I lose it and..."

"Let's worry about that when it actually happens. In the meantime, nothing has happened but that pair of foxes from the forest who keep helping themselves to Aiko's sake and playing stupid tricks on people after they're good and drunk."

"That is not the point," InuYasha said stubbornly. "I'm supposed to be ready to defend this place and I'm not. That is not acceptable, and you know it."

"Since there's nothing either of us can do about it, I suggest you take a chill pill and wait it out gracefully. You're certainly not the first person who's has been stuck in a situation he doesn't like. I get them all the time." Like now, for instance, Kagome thought sourly.

InuYasha glared at her for a moment, then said, "I think I'll go see what's taking that old geezer so long. I better not catch him goofing off. He's had more than enough time to figure it out." He got up and stalked out the door, slamming it closed behind him.

Myoga hopped out a window after him, calling, "InuYasha-sama, wait for me."

Kagome jumped again when the door slammed, dropping the screw she had just found and banging her head painfully on the table. "Ah, ow, geez." She knelt for a moment with her eyes closed, regathering her composure, then glared at the door. A moment later, she sighed and muttered, "Well, he'll be out of my hair for a while, at least. I hope Toto-sai is making progress..."

Kagome's respite was too short and too busy to replenish her equanimity.

After Kagome reassembled her scale, she started water on the fire, then started measuring the herbs for the cough syrup. Nariko, who was always interested in any concoction Kagome was brewing, whether it was medicine or food, dropped her doll to come inspect the operation. Kagome measured out her herbs, then placed them in a kettle to steep in hot water. Nariko poked into the herb packets, sniffing each one to memorize its scent.

"Mama, all the good stuff is gone from this one," she announced, holding up a packet.

"What? That's not right! I just bought that one at the last traders' fair," Kagome objected. She took up a pinch of the dried herb and rubbed it between her hands and sniffed it herself. Instead of the pungency she expected, it smelled dusty and flat. "Oh, bother. They weren't storing it very carefully, were they? I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have. Maybe if I used more, we can get whatever value it still has..."

She put three more healthy pinches into the herb kettle, then poured in the boiling water and slapped the lid on the kettle so they wouldn't lose the aromatic oils. After it had brewed for half an hour, she added sake to keep the oils in suspension and for its own cough suppressing value and bottled the syrup.

That done, she made her rounds through the village, infinitely thankful for the modern inoculations that protected her from the whooping cough's ravages. She barely had time to return home afterward, throw together an easy dinner and get the children to bed before she collapsed.

She slept uncomfortably with disturbing dreams until the first light in the east convinced her to give it up for the night. She wrapped herself in a warm robe and started up the kettle for ginger tea to settle her stomach.

"Morning, Mama." Tsuchiya was, of course, already up and disgustingly bright and cheerful. He gave her a snugly hug, then asked, "What's for breakfast?" That was also a given; the boy's appetite was insatiable.

"Umm, I haven't really thought that far yet. Let me get my tea, then we'll see what we have to work with."

"OK." Tsuchiya settled down on one of the cushions around the table and leaned over it, elbows on the table and chin in his hands, to watch her. "Where did Papa go again? He's sure taking a long time."

"He went to talk to Toto-sai about his sword."

"Oh. Where does Toto-sai-san live?"

"I'm not really sure. All I know is it's in the crater of a volcano, which is not a place that humans can visit."

"Oh. Could I go there?"

"I really don't know. I guess it depends on how much youki you need to protect you from the heat and the poisonous gases."

"Oh. How hot does it get there an' what kind of poisonous gases are there?"

"That sounds like a good science project for you to research. We'll go the the library at Grandma's and you can look all that stuff up and tell me about it."

"Ohhhh," Tsuchiya groaned. Ask a simple question just to make conversation and the next thing you know, you've got a 'learning moment' dumped in your lap. He really had to keep a closer watch on what he said.

"It'll be interesting," Kagome said bracingly. She checked the kettle and decided the water was hot enough for decent tea and poured it into the pot to brew. Her quick check of the larder had not been inspiring. It was still late winter, so there wasn't much fresh food available yet. Yesterday's dinner had barely sufficed to feed the family, so there weren't any leftovers to recycle. Rooting deeper, she found some pickled vegetables and miso-marinated fish. It didn't need any cooking, which was fine by her. All she needed was some rice.

"OK, I think I've found breakfast. I just need to make some rice."

"How long?" Tsuchiya asked anxiously.

"You know how long it takes to make rice," she replied. It wasn't like she didn't do it every day.

Tsuchiya sighed with a long-suffering, soulful look.

"You can set the table," she added.

Tsuchiya sighed again and started laying out plates, cups and chopsticks with the air of a martyr facing his unjust burden. Kagome was half-inclined to give him a truly onerous chore to remind him how easy he had it.

By now, the clattering of the plates and the smell of cooking rice had roused the rest of the children. They had barely finished breakfast when the first of the medical requests came in and Kagome started marshaling her supplies for the next day's work in the village.

The worst of the epidemic had passed, so by mid afternoon, she was done and could take a break and visit Sango to catch up on her news. Sango had recently delivered her fifth daughter, Hibari, and was pleased to have a break from the drudgery of caring for a new-born infant.

"How are you doing?" Kagome asked as she gently bounced the new baby on her shoulder and handed Sango a cup of tea.

"Not bad. Definitely better than Neko. How are you holding up?" Sango asked as she savored her tea and her brief moment of respite from motherly demands.

"Uugh, queasy most of the day. This is the worst one since Tsuchiya. Even ginger tea doesn't seem to settle my stomach."

"How far along are you again? A couple of months? Hang in there, it should be over pretty soon," Sang said encouragingly.

"Yeah. I keep telling myself that," she sighed.

"Has InuYasha settled down any yet?" InuYasha and his epic sulk over the sword were the village's current hot topic of conversation.

"I wish. At least he's taken it somewhere else for a while."

"Oh? Where did he go?"

"He went to give Toto-sai a piece of his mind."

Sango winced. "Brilliant. That's really going to help."

"Tell me about it. At least, I don't have to listen to it for a couple of days."

"But isn't that just going to...?"

rrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRWHUMPH! The entire house shook from a powerful distant blast.

"What on Earth...?" Both Kagome and Sango ran out of the house and looked around outside to see what had caused the shaking. In the distance, far to the north, a vast black cloud rose into the sky, lit from beneath with lightning and a sullen orange glow.

"Um," Sango said.

"Volcano," Kagome said.

"Oh, you don't think...?" Sango asked.

"Yeah, I do," Kagome replied. "I'm getting some really weird waves coming from that blast, youki and reiki all mingled together. I don't know what else it could be."

"What do you suppose happened?"

"I have no idea, but I bet it's not good."

Sango watched the cloud climb into the sky, then remarked, "Oh, he's going to be pissy when he gets home."

"Isn't he, though? I'm really not looking forward to it."

"A fine time to go visit your mother, perhaps?" Sango suggested.

"Ha! That's tempting, but he'll dump an extra portion of guilt trip on me along with the pissy attitude. No, it's better if I handle this head on. Somehow." The prospect did not sound brighten her day.

"Well, good luck," Sango replied. "You've had more experience dealing with him than I have. I'm sure you'll think of something."

Kagome took her leave and headed back up the hill to her house, pondering what she could do to defuse InuYasha when he finally made it home. She rolled possible conversations and opening lines through her head; everything she could think of could be taken wrong somehow and would give him an excuse to launch into another temperamental rant. She finally decided to say nothing, then for additional good measure, practiced a bland, diplomatic face in front of the mirror so he couldn't use her expression as an implicit message. By the time she was done, there was no hint of 'I told you so' or 'What did you think would happen?' or 'That really made things better, didn't it?' left in her eyes or mouth. She had herself molded into a vaguely pleasant open expression with just a hint of sympathy, ready to listen to whatever he had to say without comment.

All that was left after that was to wait. Although she knew he could not possibly get home so quickly, she spent the evening in an uncomfortable state of expectant anxiety, which only grew worse as time rolled on. She tossed and turned through the night, then rose the next morning, exhausted, to start her day. She was unusually short with the children at breakfast, causing them to fall silent and watch her warily as they did their chores. After chores, she let Tsuchiya out to romp with his friends for the morning, sent Toushi out with Taiba to visit the potters with some cough syrup, knowing they would both be absorbed by the fun of watching pottery, and took Nariko with her on her rounds through the recovering villagers for observational training.

She finished her rounds in the early afternoon, rounded up Toushi and Taiba then trudged back up the hill to put Taiba and Nariko down for their naps and do lessons with the older two. She started Toushi and Tsuchiya on their volcano research project. When Tsuchiya got disruptive, she switched gears to afternoon chores, sending Tsuchiya out for firewood and Toushi for water while she assembled ingredients and tools for dinner.

Toushi came in with a full bucket and news. "Papa's coming down the hill," she announced, dumping the bucket into the urn and turning to go out to get more.

"Oh!" With a rush of adrenaline, Kagome hurried to the door to look out, schooling her face into her diplomatic mask and muttering under her breath, "Don't say anything, don't say anything, you'll just make it worse..." She looked out the door just as he dropped down the cliff face and bounded onto the porch.

Her long rehearsal utterly failed her; despite all the practice and self-coaching, her mask shattered and she she gasped, wide-eyed, at his appearance.

"If you say one word...," he snarled jabbing a finger at her.

She shook her head quickly, hands to her mouth and eyes still wide in shock. Nope, she wasn't going to say a thing. Not a chance. Even so, the 'What did you think was going to happen?' hung in the air between them.

"Keh!" he snorted with disgust, then turned and stalked off to his sulking tree to seethe.

Kagome watched him go as she reassembled her scattered wits. She wasn't sure what had happened at the volcano, but it must have been a near thing. Even a day later, he was still sporting a face burned brilliantly red, his eyebrows were completely singed off as was most of his hair. His fire-rat robe had almost pulled itself back together, but the white silk shirt under it was now scorched a rich brown. Most telling, he did not yet have Tetsusaiga tucked into his waistband. Maybe she could bribe the story out of Myoga; a couple of drops of plum wine and the old flea would spill the goods on anything. For the moment, though, the best plan was to avoid her husband until he had worked through his snit.

Kagome may have found it the better part of valor to leave InuYasha to his own devices, but others felt otherwise. The next morning, Toushi took it upon herself to visit Inuyasha in his tree. She looked up at him from the ground and asked, "Papa, are you Sitting? Can I Sit with you?"

Zazen, or Sitting Meditation, was scarcely what InuYasha was doing, but he never could deny his elder daughter. He nodded curtly and she climbed up to join him, sitting beside him like a little ray of sunshine in his otherwise murky world. She settled herself carefully on the branch beside him, took a deep breath and gently laid her hands in her lap, right hand cradled in her left with her thumbs touching, just as Aunt Sakura had taught her. She breathed out slowly and evenly and sat very still, still breathing gently.

InuYasha watched her out of the corner of his eye for a moment, then returned to his sour musings. It had been over a month and Toto-sai still had made no real progress. He was charged with the protection of two villages and his family, and his most potent tool was completely out of commission and no one seemed to care. Didn't they get it? Any time now, the crisis could come and he'd be left with just his claws and his stubbornness and it wouldn't be enough and he'd lose it completely and the youkai spirit in him would take over, leaving him a senseless, ravening animal that would destroy everything in his path and he'd lose everything he loved and...

"I don't think you're doing it right."

"Uh... what?" InuYasha blinked and looked at his daughter, his train of thought completely lost.

"Sitting," she said earnestly "I don't think you're doing it right. You're full of hoppy cricket-thoughts."

"Well, I... uh... What are hoppy cricket-thoughts?"

"Aunt Sakura says that when you Sit you are supposed to let you mind go still and empty. It's really hard, and if you try to squash your thoughts into going away, they hop around your head instead like crickets. She says it works better if you catch them, look at them without attachment and let them go."

" 'Without attachment', what does that mean?"

Toushi wrinkled her nose and thought about it. "I'm not really sure. You're not supposed to like it or not like it, want it or not want it... It's just there and, um..." She stared out into space for a moment, thinking, then she shrugged. "I dunno. I really don't get it yet."

"And this is supposed to make things better," InuYasha said skeptically.

"Nothing seems to bother Aunt Sakura," Toushi remarked.

There wasn't any arguing that; Aunt Sakura could face down a typhoon without blinking and win. There had to be something to her odd notions. A dose of Aunt Sakura's self-sufficient confidence couldn't hurt, right now. "Right. So, um, how are you supposed to Sit, anyway?"

"OK, um, so you usually sit cross legged on a cushion with your arms like this. You keep your eyes open but you don't look at anything and you count your breaths. Try to make counting the only thing you think about. And don't get mad if it doesn't work, cuz it never does. Just start over and do it again 'til you mess up again. That's all."

"Um, yeah..." It all sounded awfully open-ended. No success, no failure... how the Hell were you supposed to know if you were doing it right? And somehow this made Aunt Sakura the dragon lady she was. What the Hell?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

zzzzZZZZZIKIKIKIKKTTT! Ow! Taiba plopped back on his bottom and glowered at Mama's sewing toolbox. That hadn't been there the last time he got into it. Mama sure made it hard to get what he wanted. He cautiously stuck out his hand again and tested the sensation. The tingly buzz started up again with its light resistance to his approaching hand. It grew stronger the closer he got to the box, and the resistance grew into an actively repelling push as he approached the latch. It got very uncomfortable as he approached touching distance, so he withdrew again. Hmm. Interesting. Latches were easy; the lock hadn't taken him that long, but this... He wasn't even sure where to start. Maybe if he could touch it with a stick?

He withdrew into the kitchen and found a chopstick in the drying rack. Returning to the toolbox, he poked out toward the box with the chopstick, finding he could touch it if he kept his hand at least four inches away. That was interesting. It was easier to manipulate things by hand, but this was not a show-stopper. Still, the latch required more than just a well-placed poke to open it. He returned back to the kitchen to look for likely looking probes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was too quiet again. What was that boy getting into this time? Kagome left the still room where she was packaging dried herbs to go look for Taiba.

She found him in her bedroom with an assortment of kitchen utensils, completely absorbed in the project of breaking into her sewing kit. He was so lost in concentration he didn't even notice her approach until she scooped him up.

"YeeEEEEEEEE!" he squealed as she hauled him away.

"No," she told him firmly, "That is not your toy. There are things in there that can hurt you."

"Noooo!" he howled, trying to push out of her arms and return to the box.

"Taiba, you have plenty of other things to play with. Come on, let's build something with blocks." Kagome put him down next to the toy box and pulled out some blocks to get him started. A few minutes later, when he seemed safely absorbed, she returned to her work.

Taiba was nothing if not persistent. Kagome pulled him away from the sewing box three more times that afternoon, then decided she needed to escalate her defenses. Taiba had come dangerously close to picking the latch the last time she caught him. She decided she needed an alarm to alert her when he was wandering into forbidden territory.

The next afternoon, she consulted with Shippo and between them, they came up with a workable spell.

Two days later, Taiba found another opportunity to go marauding. He slipped into his parents' room and quickly located the sewing kit on a shelf well out of his reach. He eyed it for a moment, carefully noting its distance from the floor, then pulled the laundry basket into the room, overturned it and climbed on top. The handles on the basket prevented it from seating squarely, but he ignored the teetering of the basket as he steadied himself by holding the edge of a lower shelf, then reached up for the sewing box. He was expecting the magical push-back he had recently solved...

**BLAA** AAA **AAA** AAA **AAA** AAA **AAA** AAA **AAA** AAA ! The box was suddenly engulfed in a starburst of brilliantly flashing colored lights and deafening sound. Taiba nearly jumped out of his skin, and recoiled backward; the teetering basket threw off his balance and he tumbled to the ground, howling his protest at this outrage.

It didn't help that Mama seemed to be trying not to laugh as she scooped him up to check him over. "What have I told you about messing with my things?" she asked sternly, after she decided he wasn't really hurt.

He stared back at her with his ears back, thoroughly displeased that he had been interrupted before he could even get going.

"You have plenty of other things to play with. You don't need to kill yourself on my tools." With that, Kagome hauled him outside and let him loose with some blocks while she laid out a portion of the meadow for a medicinal herb garden.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inazuma's nose twitched; It was back again, riding in on Kouri's train as she swept imperiously into the courtyard to stir the puppies into a frenzy while she instructed her daughter-in-law on the wastefulness of mercy. Inazuma paid scarce heed to Kouri as she studied It. The energy swirling around It was reiki, making It a kami, but she could not puzzle out who It was. This kami had never attended the Hunt, and she was not able to detect Its essential nature. All the other kami she had encountered were steeped in their nature; water dragons, wind birds, tree nymphs, flower fairies, kami of the passions, they all had their telltale scents, but this one changed and morphed continually. The one thing that remained constant was Its glee in mayhem and Its razor-sharp focus on the progress of her children. The other trend Inazuma had noticed was that Kouri's obsession with InuYasha and his family rose to a fever pitch to whenever It was around.

Searing claws slashed across Inazuma's face, shattering her musings. She turned on Kouri, snarling.

"I did not come here to be ignored," Kouri growled. "If you don't start attending to my instructions, I will ..."

"I am raising rulers, not killing machines," Inazuma replied. "We discussed this earlier." Earlier, a quieter, more pensive Kouri had reflected on her past and its results, remarking that she should have been gentler. Today, though, she was in prime form, where anything was conscionable in pursuit of her goal.

"That is the first thing you must correct. Soft sentiments will not get this job done. That hanyou should have been dead centuries ago, and instead, he thrives and continues his abomination. There is no room for sentiment when you are cleaning out an infestation."

"And afterward? What comes afterward?"

"There's a whole world just waiting for us out there. It's been a long time since the Sky Dogs were of any consequence. That will change."

With killing machines, Inazuma thought with dismay. Isn't that what she tried before, except that Kazan was in the way to temper her training? Isn't that what she made of Sesshomaru? Raw power was all very well to gain an empire, but afterward, you have to hold it...

"We were doing strength training," Inazuma said, hoping to deflect Kouri long enough the regain control of the session. That, surely, was not controversial.

"Strength," Kouri mused, her lips pressed tightly as she considered it in light of her goals. "Very well. I will watch." She stood at the edge of the court where she could see everything and made snippy comments whenever the puppies did not perform to her expectations.

Inazuma called time when the puppies showed signs of getting tired.

"What's this?" Kouri asked.

"Strength today, not endurance," Inazuma replied coolly. "Now we cool down and rest while the muscles develop."

"Hmph."

Inazuma ignored her and fetched the post-training snacks. A couple of her sons were already wrestling in a friendly way when she got back. She started to hand out portions when Kouri intervened again.

"No, don't just give them treats. Make them win them."

"These are not treats. They are food with strengthening potions."

"You must also strengthen their resolve. Make them work for it."

"Right now, I think we must strengthen their bonds and sharing in good spirits will do that."

"That's all seriously overrated, you know."

"It's what makes us Dogs!" Dismay spiraled up through Inazuma's heart. Litter-bonds, pack-bonds, inter-pack alliances - all of this is what defined the Dogs. If Kouri had lost touch with that part of her heritage, was she truly a Dog anymore?

Kouri demurred and allowed Inazuma to distribute her snacks, but Inazuma remained rattled to her core. She had to do something to get that kami out of the picture before her puppies were permanently affected by this corruption. Perhaps she should take this InuYasha problem on herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So, she was going to play dirty, was she? The alarm spell was completely unfair as far as Taiba was concerned, but he was just the boy for this challenge. First, of course, was a thorough probe of all things that set the alarm off...

Kagome now had reason to regret installing the alarm. Taiba spent the next several days setting off the alarm at least 20 times a day, interrupting everything she was trying to do at least twice as she dealt with collecting him and starting him on a Mother-approved activity. Had he always been this obsessed, or was it just the alarm that seemed to attract him like a moth to a candle? Finally the day arrived that the alarm failed to fire. Kagome noticed this after she had managed to complete three tasks without getting interrupted. What a relief! He'd finally given up, or...

With a surge of panic, she bolted to her room and found that he had indeed disarmed the alarm and was now happily unreeling all of her spools of thread all over the floor.

"Oh, Taiba, no," she groaned, wondering if there was any hope of salvaging her thread.

The grin he gave her was distinctly triumphant.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome called a conference of the family adults to discuss the Taiba problem after she had the children safely in bed.

"OK, somehow he disarmed the alarm, then got past the repelling spell. What else can we do?" Kagome leaned over, elbows on the table and her face lost in her hands as she considered with resignation the probability that there was no way to stop a determined Taiba.

Shippo chewed his lip for a moment as he thought, then he said, "I keep him out of my stuff with a keyed-lock spell, but that's leaf magic, so I don't think you can do it."

"How does it work?" Kagome asked, looking up.

"It's like the homing spell. You lay a leaf on the item to be locked and activate the spell, then break off half off the leaf. Part of the leaf embeds into the box and the other half you take with you. You need to match the two halves to open the box. It has its down sides. You're screwed if the half you take with you gets lost or destroyed."

"Yeah. That could be a problem. I also need to let other people into my stuff at times. I just need to keep out Taiba until he gets old enough to not hurt himself. I could do that with the other spells."

"That does complicate things."

"Maybe Miroku can think of something..."

"Kagome, are you sure you want Miroku to know Taiba can break into anything?" InuYasha asked.

"Oh, yeah, that may not be so good," Kagome muttered. That would almost guarantee a crime spree of sorts.

"About that leaf thing, can anyone bring in the other leaf half, or does it need to be the spell caster?" InuYasha asked.

"I've... never had a reason to test that. I really don't know," Shippo admitted.

"Do you have a spelled box we can test it with?" Kagome asked.

Shippo blushed brilliantly and said, "Uh, not really, no."

"Oh, really?" InuYasha needled. "Just what are you keeping in that box?"

"None of your business!"

"Oh? It's in my house, isn't it?"

"InuYasha..." Kagome growled warningly.

"What?"

"I'm sure it's just highly personal." Kagome stared at him pointedly until he backed down.

"Ah, Hell, let's just make a new one right now. Let's try that box." InuYasha said, pointing to a box in the stillroom.

"What's in it?" Shippo asked.

"Nothing, actually, I'm just storing it there," Kagome replied.

"Perfect," InuYasha said. "No loss if this screws up and we can't open it again."

"Let's give it a whirl," Shippo said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a fresh leaf. He put the leaf on the box, holding the tip in his hand, then muttered the activating spell. He tore free the leaf tip and handed it to Kagome. InuYasha picked up the box and tested it. There was no way it was going to open without the leaf tip. Kagome placed the leaf tip beside the rest of the leaf and the box sprang open.

"Nice," InuYasha said. "Let's go with that."

Taiba had very early learned the value of silence and keeping his ears open. He woke up briefly and heard his name, so he wandered out toward the kitchen to just in time to witness the demonstration of the new lock. So they had a new scheme, did they? He'd have to see about that.

At his earliest opportunity, he slipped into the stillroom and pulled the locked box from the shelf. There were no alarms, no repulsion, it seemed just like any other normal box except that it would not open. The mystery box soon received all of his considerable ingenuity as he worked on the problem of opening it.

In the meantime, Kagome enjoyed a welcome bit of peace. Taiba was ignoring every other temptation while he worked on the empty box. She wondered why she hadn't thought of it earlier.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yes, Lady, I will look into it immediately."

Karimaru bowed and departed from the Lady's audience chamber, pondering what he could do to tease more information out about how the peculiar magic in InuYasha's household worked. He turned a corner to find Inazuma's personal maid waiting for him with a message. She bowed and handed him a rolled piece of paper bound with a ribbon and a small spray of sweetly scented wisteria. She stood quietly beside him to await his reply.

Karimaru slipped the flowers from the ribbon and admired way they tumbled in his hands as he placed them in Sanjusan's hands. He then slipped off the ribbon and unrolled the scroll to read.

Sweet scented flowers,

Are they witness or players

In the Kami-Go?

Inazuma was clever and knowledgeable about magics he had seldom seen. Perhaps he should tap her for insight. Yes, he would accept this invitation. He turned over the paper and wrote his reply.

Afternoon flowers,

Does the Kami-Go need them

For there to be seeds?

The wisteria court was in full bloom. Sweet-scented flowers draped the arbors and hung low, obscuring the small gazebo that offered seating in the center of the court. Karimaru pushed past the swaying flowers and found Inazuma within. She was sitting on a bench with table before her holding a large Go board. Two bowls of playing stones were on either side of the board and his bench waited across the table from hers. In the corner of the gazebo, another small table stood holding drinks and light refreshments.

"Lady."

Inazuma smiled and said, "Thank you for coming. Would you like to start with refreshment, or begin immediately with the game?"

"Perhaps some tea first."

She rose and poured them each some tea, then they both sat once again at the game table.

Karimaru examined the board curiously. It looked like any other Go board.

"The difference is in the stones," she explained, stirring her bowl idly with a finger. "Most of them are ordinary stones, but some of them can wander or change sides. Since this is your first game, we can start with an partially established pattern, or a random placing of about ten stones each to get things going."

"Let's do the random placement," Karimaru decided.

They each dipped up ten stones and dropped them on the board. The stones bounced and rolled where they would, then they each pushed them onto the junctions on the board that were closest to the stones' landing places. They played a choosing game for who would get first move and the play began.

Karimaru frowned and scanned the board one more time. He could have sworn he had put that stone there, at the other corner of the field, but somehow it had wandered three spaces away. He had been one stone away from finishing this enclosure, and now he was two. "I had always wondered about the oddities of your Go game," he remarked as he vacillated between the two openings in his field, trying to decide which would better serve his strategy. "This does add an interesting level of uncertainty to the strategy."

"Much more like real life, I've found," Inazuma replied. "There is a great deal more uncertainty in the world than just your opponent's unknown thoughts. You also have to deal with your minions' dubious loyalties, your opponent's minions and their notions, the neighbors, and then, there's always the weather."

Karimaru laughed. "That does sum it up pretty well."

"You are actually doing very well, for a beginner," Inazuma remarked. "You have had a great deal of practice in playing the odds across several fronts, I believe?"

"Mm." Karimaru shrugged noncommittally and finally placed his stone.

"You probably know The Lady's mind better than anyone in the palace," Inazuma said. "Can you explain to me what is so vastly threatening about a hanyou and his brood?"

"Normally, not much," Karimaru replied. "This one galls her mostly because he is the bastard son of her mate and he is still alive."

That was a typical Karimaru answer; technically accurate, but leaving out all the actual meat. And it was much too clever; already she could feel her resentment of Sesshomaru's woman-pet rearing up to cloud her thoughts and direct her attention elsewhere. Promising herself she would check up on that situation later, she dragged her mind back to her line of questioning.

"No doubt, but that is not enough to generate this level of ... hysteria. She's training for war! Over a hanyou?" Inazuma placed her next stone on the board.

"Ridiculous, isn't it?" Karimaru studied the board and saw one of Inazuma's stones treacherously change to his color. Was there any advantage? Not this time; she had placed it in a safe zone. He returned to his original strategy and placed his next stone.

"Is it really? What do you know about him?"

"He's a great deal like Kazan-sama; hot-tempered, stubborn and passionate with a deep sense of decency."

"You've met him." Inazuma placed her stone in a location that did not advance any strategy.

"Yes."

"Is he dangerous?"

"If provoked, he's quite dangerous, but he isn't interested in the world of the Clans. He has thrown his lot in with the mortals." Karimaru placed a stone that completed an enclosure and scooped up his winnings.

"Do you really believe that?" Two of Karimaru's stones defected to Inazuma's side. She pounced, putting her stone beside the useless one she had placed in the last turn, completing a large enclosure, and collected her conquest.

Karimaru frowned; somehow, Inazuma seemed to have a way to sense which were the treacherous stones. "How do you do that?" he asked.

"Hm?"

"How do you know which ones are going to turn?"

"Ah." She smiled. "There are some subtle differences in the stones if you look for them. Even the kami could not mask the differences completely. You can feel it if you hold them in your hand for a moment; the altered ones have a tiny but distinct tingle and a barely visible aura. Even so, you still can't tell just when, or even if, they are going to flip or wander. I treat those like an unreliable underling."

And she treats mine like allies to be wooed. Karimaru frowned and inspected the board again, trying to detect all the 'touched' pieces. Slowly, they came into focus; as expected, Inazuma had neatly utilized each of them into her placement patterns. Now that he knew, what could he do to foul her strategy?

"The Lady, of course, would not let a perceived threat go unchallenged," Inazuma remarked. "What's holding her back?" And why does she need my litter to meet this challenge?

Karimaru continued moving possible patterns around in his head, trying to foretell what would happen with a different approach. "There is some very strange magic used by that family. We have not been able to evaluate its capabilities," he said absently.

Shock thrilled through Inazuma, fluttering her stomach and tightening her breath. She clamped down on her reaction quickly. It would not do to react strongly right now.

"How does a hanyou come by magic like that?" she asked.

"It's not him. It's tied to the woman somehow." Karimaru finally selected a move and placed his stone.

Inazuma studied the board and placed her next stone so that Karimaru's options would be thrown into further confusion. Right now, keeping Karimaru absorbed was more important than winning the game.

"The woman? What's special about the woman?"

Inazuma's just-placed stone wandered two places across the board to lodge against Karimaru's biggest building territory. Karimaru cocked an eyebrow as he continued to consider the shifting possibilities. "That's a good question. She is a miko, a particularly strong one, but that isn't the source of the strange magic. I know the feel of reiki as well as I know youki, but I'm not detecting either in her strange artifacts."

"Are you sure they are hers?"

"She is the one who knows how to use them." Karimaru made his next decision and placed his stone.

Interesting decision. Inazuma gave him a gimme that would bite him a few moves later. "So, what do these artifacts do?"

Karimaru rejected the bait and placed his stone on another front. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a hand-sized ball and handed it to her. "What do you make of this?"

Inazuma's eyes widened in surprise. She gingerly took the ball and inspected it closely, looking at it, sniffing it, running her hands over the surface and bathing it in youki to watch its reaction. "What of it?" she finally asked.

"Bounce it."

"Eh?"

"Bounce it on the floor."

Inazuma looked at the ball quizzically, then bounced it on the floor, as instructed. Multicolored lights flashed inside the ball in a bewildering pattern, then tailed off as the ball settled on the floor. Despite this, no sense whatever of youki or reiki came from the ball. She picked it up cautiously and inspected it again. It appeared completely inert.

"What's inside it?"

"I have no idea. Kouri-sama believes they are spirits."

"Nooo, I don't think it's spirits," Inazuma said pensively. "I don't sense anything alive."

"So, what is it?"

What indeed?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Taiba sat out in the meadow in front of the house on a warm sunny spring day, the stubborn box laying next to his knee while he idly watched a column of ants marching by in front of him. He glanced across the meadow to where his mother was setting up trellises and fencing in a square plot she had recently dug up to plant medicinal herbs.

It didn't seem to bother her that he openly had the box in his possession. That just wasn't right. Could it be the box really was unopenable? No, he had seen them open that one day; it had to open. But how...?

He picked up the box again and examined it closely. He ran a claw along the lid where it met the body of the box; he was absolutely unable to tease open a gap. He pushed the corners, and sides in various combinations; nothing moved. He felt and smelled it all over; the only hint of magic lay in the image of half a leaf painted across the front of the box that suspiciously overlay the seam of the box and the lid. He carefully tried to slide a claw under the lacquered leaf, but it was impossible. He applied more force, trying to gauge through the lacquer, but his claws just slid off. It wasn't like he hadn't tried each of these things a thousand times before.

Kourogi trotted up the path from the village and flopped down in the grass beside him to enjoy the sunshine. It was still too early in the year to worry to much about birds and bunnies; the rice was just peering out of the flooded paddies and the rabbits still had a plethora of fresh young forest greens to nibble. Besides, the sunshine was very sleepy and pleasant.

Taiba looked over at her as his frustration mounted again. She thumped her tail lazily in greeting. He grinned and walked over to pet her. She rolled over on her back to enjoy a nice belly-rub. Taiba complied for a couple of minutes, then her collar caught his attention. He had never really noticed it before. He looped a finger under the collar and lifted the clasp up for a closer look. Hmm. Magic. He probed the clasp carefully with a claw, feeling out out the edges and examining the magical cross-ties that held it bound. Some of the ties just held the collar closed, but others fed into Kourogi herself, binding her with magical ties that kept some aspect of her leashed. Kourogi lay very still, watching him carefully out of the corner of her eye as he probed the collar. Taiba let the bindings lay across the palm of his hand in invisible, barely tactile strings, visualizing them in his mind. Ah, there was a nexus, and here was the cord that bound them all. He slid a finger under the binding cord and lifted it up, gave it a twist, and suddenly it all unraveled in his hand and slid free into a mop of loose strings. Kourogi rolled to her feet and shook herself vigorously, then squatted down with a huge doggie grin on her face. A moment later, Taiba was looking at the mischievous dark eyes of a girl of about twelve who squatted on her heels where Kourogi had been, her hands on the ground before her. She grinned and winked at him conspiratorially. "Shhh," she cautioned, touching his mouth with her finger. He grinned back. This was more fun than he had had in months.

She reached up and unfastened the collar around her neck, then looked at it carefully. "We have to put it back, at least, enough that no one can tell." She frowned and sat down cross legged to work on the spell. Taiba watched in fascination as she pulled the magical strings up and retied them in a different pattern that could be released with a flick of the collar's clasp. "There, that should do it." She reclasped the collar around her neck, winked at him again, and turned back into the dog he had known all his life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The ball gnawed on Inazuma's nerves; she found herself pulling it out and staring into it, then bouncing it again to watch the lights. She contemplated slicing it open to see what was inside, but the thought of having that unknown element unleashed held her back.

She was careless once and the puppies saw her bounce it and hurtled after it with wild enthusiasm, then played keep-away with her, passing it back and forth across the room as she tried to recapture it. Their teamwork was flawless, the speed and accuracy with which they maneuvered the room and threw the ball between them was impressive, but right now, this was the last thing she wanted. It disturbed her to see how easily the ball beguiled her children. There was no doubt its influence was dangerous.

She got the ball back by feigning disinterest and starting another fascinating activity, summoning small lightnings and making the bronze-work in the room crackle and glow. The pups clustered close to see how it was done.

"The ball, first," she said firmly, holding out her hand.

Her biggest son handed it over reluctantly.

She tucked it securely in her sleeve, then rewarded them with the lesson on small lightnings.

That night, she made her decision. This threat could not go unaddressed. She made a new puppet, but this time, the puppet was to remain in the palace while she went out. It needed to be convincing, so this time she animated it with a flask of her blood. She launched the puppet, then slipped out through the kitchen with Sanjusan, supposedly just another tanuki servant fetching supplies from the outer holdings.

The tanuki, who saw and heard everything within the walls of the palace, including secret intelligence briefings, had told her where she could find Inuyasha's stronghold. She took to the air and flew low, heading south and east to a narrow valley tucked in the mountains near the great Edo plain where a small peaceful village farmed its fields, untroubled by the wider world outside.

The valley and its village were nothing; there were merely a few dozen residents, their small industries had no value outside their feeding and housing. The road that led to the village was a small steep trail up a narrow gorge that could scarcely accommodate pack animals. The largest landmarks were the shrine, the potter's kiln and a small manor house perched halfway up the slope of a hill near the base of a cliff.

Inazuma touched down on the roof of the watch tower and surveyed the valley carefully, fully expanding all of her senses. Another picture began to form of the other dimensions that inhabited this space. The air was powerfully charged with both youki and reiki working in concert. Inazuma located an unusually high number of spiritually charged people. InuYasha's miko mate was easy to find; she glowed with an unusually high reiki gift. Elsewhere in the village, Inazuma found an older, less powerful miko who used her long training and experience to make the best of her meager gifts and a well-trained, if morally suspect Buddhist priest who had stores of ofuda and other spells about his person. The forest at the high end of the valley was alive with youkai of many varieties and closer in, the village housed a youkai cat and the manor house a kitsune as well as Inuyasha and his brood. Looking through the village, Inazuma quickly picked out InuYasha brooding in a tree; he was unmistakably Dog but reports of his power seemed to be highly overrated. Out in the fields, she spotted a son, there was a daughter visiting the old miko, another daughter playing with some children on a house's porch while her mother talked to the woman of the house and a small son squirming in his mother's arms. So, there were just four of them, and, as Sesshomaru had reported, they were mortal. The job should be simple enough.

Pushing deeper, Inazuma began to detect the traces of frequent visits by many kami, some of them very powerful. War and Death were recent visitors, although she found no sign of battle or recent graves. A sense of Water permeated the valley, and capricious Inari had also been through periodically. Finally, there was the unmistakable musk of the kami that haunted Kouri's halls. Here, the musk held notes of rancor and frustration, not glee.

Doubts began to bubble up in Inazuma's mind. This was a hot spot, a place where the Game was played with fierce intensity. If she meddled here, she faced the mingled ire of many powerful kami. If she did not meddle... perhaps she faced the mingled ire of many powerful kami... Had she truly come of her own volition, or had one of the players drawn her here? If so, which one?

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The River Woman watched the scene unfold, scarcely able to breathe. Her fingers twitched with the ardent desire to do something, anything, but Ryuujin's warning rang in her head. "Wild mark of the first order. Do not touch. She must choose." Even so, the River Woman plotted out possible moves and forecast the repercussions: InuYasha's family slain here and now, Kagome cutting down Inazuma with an arrow and unleashing the full ire of the Sky Dogs on her and her family, Sesshomaru and Inazuma in deadly conflict while Kouri ravaged the land in her unleashed ambition... Disaster after disaster unfolded with Muchitsujo-rei feeding off the resultant chaos to rise to ever greater power. Or, she could do nothing and hope.

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The boy in the fields spotted Inazuma, despite her maid's cloak of illusion. He pointed her out to his companions, who evidently did not see anything themselves. After a brief argument, the boy gave up and came in from the fields to report to his father on his own, accompanied by a large brown-brindle dog.

InuYasha and the boy talked briefly and the boy pointed once again to the roof of the watch tower.

InuYasha squinted at the watch tower, but still was not able to see anything. "Are you sure?" he asked Tsuchiya.

"Yeah. A black dog-lady and a tanuki."

"Right." Damn the fates for the timing and damn Toto-sai for his lack of progress! InuYasha did not like unexpected attention. It usually meant trouble. The fact they came in cloaked did not not speak well of their intentions. They obviously were not aware of Tsuchiya's unusual talent for penetrating illusion. "You keep an eye on them while I get your mother's bow and quiver." He dropped from the tree and slipped into the house briefly for Kagome's weapons, then returned to gather up the rest of his family.

Inazuma bit her lip, considering. The kami who was meddling with her children did not like what was going on here. She did not like that kami. Why should she serve its interests? She had no guarantee it would go away after she had achieved its goal here. It was more likely to decide she was an effective tool and use her more. What about the other side of this conflict? Were their aims any better? What could she do to flush them out? Would they jump in to protect their investment if she made the move to slay this family? The best way to find out was to make it look good. She stepped off the watchtower roof and glided over the roofs toward the house where Kagome was working.

While Inazuma hesitated, Inuyasha had been hastily gathering his family around him. He had just gathered Toushi and arrived at the house where Kagome was when Inazuma blew past, rumbling thunder and lancing lightning at the porch where Nariko and her friends were playing. The lightning skittered along the porch rails, then blew them into splinters as she passed, leaving the very air tingling in her wake.

Kourogi howled a warbling cry to the sky as Kagome bolted out the door of the house and cried, "What on Earth is going on out here?"

"Trouble," InuYasha said briefly, pushing her bow and quiver at her as he kept a fierce eye on Inazuma's progress. "I don't know what her problem is, but that bitch appeared out of nowhere and she blasted the porch to pieces. She just missed Nariko and Toushi. Shit! Here she comes again!"

Inazuma came in lower and faster this time, lightning dancing from her fingertips. InuYasha pushed the children behind him and took up a defensive position in front of his family. To her great surprise, he slashed a wide gash in his chest and dipped his fingers in the blood, then flung his arm out wide, sending a spray of blood drops flying toward her.

"Blades of blood!" he growled, changing the blood droplets into spinning knives that whirled around her, slicing her clothes and hair and biting into her flesh.

"Huh!" She released her lightning in a dazzling net around them, just enough to singe hair and send tingling ripples running through their nerves. Brilliant lights flashed all around blinding them temporarily. She pulled up and climbed over the house, wheeled wide and returned for another run.

This time, InuYasha took the fight to her, charging her and leaping up to rake her with his claws. One touch of her highly charged hand made all of his muscles seize. She batted him away, sending him tumbling to the ground in a helpless heap.

Kagome fired an arrow that caught her in the arm and sent her tumbling out of the sky, herself. She rolled several times on impact and her electric charge bled away into the ground. Damn! That was just a warning shot. What was the woman capable of when she really meant business?

She got to her feet and found Kagome had another arrow ready and pointed at her heart.

Without taking her eyes off Inazuma, Kagome called, "InuYasha?"

"Nnnh..." From the corner of her eye, she could see he still had not recovered.

"Papa!" Toushi and Nariko both bolted from cover to run to his assistance. Tsuchiya stationed himself off to the side, where he could get in a shot with his sling if Inazuma threatened either his mother or his father and sisters.

Kourogi withdrew to sit beside Taiba in the doorway of the house. She scratched at her collar's clasp vigorously, trying to loosen the magic ties she had put in place when she replaced it. The collar jingled on her neck as she worked on it, but it would not come undone.

Inazuma kept a light eye on Kagome and her arrow while she extended her other senses outward. So far, the kami had not taken the bait. She scanned her surroundings, from Kagome and her arrow, to the older son off to the side with a missile ready in his sling, the the two girls who were attending to the rapidly recovering father, then to the brindle-brown dog who guarded the toddler Taiba. This must be Karimaru's spy. It seemed the little bitchling was doing more than just spy, she was also a part of the family. Just what was Karimaru really up to?

Kourogi began to panic. Her clan-hunters were still too far away to help and the ties on her collar would not come undone. She must have done something wrong when she put it back together. Taiba had undone it before, maybe he could do it again. She poked him in the cheek with a cold, wet nose. He pulled his attention away from the confrontation just long enough to push back and say, "I watching!" She stepped in front of his view with her collar right in his face. He glowered at her for a moment, then the light went on. She wanted it taken off again. His fingers twitched eagerly. There was nothing in this world that could compare to the pleasure of working an intricate puzzle. He was soon lost in the joy of untangling the mess of magical lines that bound Kourogi and her collar.

InuYasha finally rolled to his feet. He shooed the girls back behind Kagome as he approached InaZuma again. He stood just outside of striking her striking distance and snarled, "All right, bitch, who the Hell are you and what is your fucking problem?"

"You are," she replied shortly. "As long as you are alive, my children are at risk of being corrupted."

"I hardly think so. I've never laid eyes on you in my life."

"Nevertheless. Because you and yours exist, I was forced into an unwanted marriage and the children I bore are being trained into killing machines. If you die, I will get my children back."

"If you think I'm just going to stand here and let you slaughter my family, you have another think coming," InuYasha retorted, flexing his fingers and pulling his youki into his hands.

"Resist if you like," Inazuma said haughtily. "It will make no difference in the end. You simply don't have the power."

"Heh! How many times have I heard that one?" InuYasha scoffed. "I won't go down as easy as you think."

Inazuma twitched an eyebrow and sent a bolt directly at Kagome, fully expecting her human reflexes would be unable to respond in time. Kagome fired and the arrow and bolt met midway, exploding with a blinding light.

Kagome was blown off her feet by the force of the blast. Inazuma aimed her next blast at the girls who were hiding behind her. InuYasha launched himself at them and swept them out of harm's way as the blast rolled over them all.

Tsuchiya shouted and slung one of his trademark pine cones at Inazuma as she turned toward him. It caught her full in the face and shattered, filling her eyes with painful shards. Snarling, she whipped around to throw a bolt at him, just as Taiba finished undoing Kourogi's collar. Kourogi charged Inazuma, and grabbed her arm as she lifted it to release her next shot. The shot went wide, striking the house's roof and setting it on fire as the pair spun around. Inazuma growled and grabbed Kourogi by the throat with her free hand. Kourogi transformed from a dog into an agile, skinny girl who raked her claws along Inazuma's arms, then dug in to swing herself up and kick at Inazuma's face.

Inazuma clawed back at the girl who agilely swung around her arm to cling on her back and bite her neck. Inazuma reached over her shoulder and grabbed Kourogi by the hair and dragged her off, then held her out at arm's length to deliver a point-blank blast. Her arm was seized again and she was jerked around to face Karimaru, backed by a fully armed hunting pack of his sons.

"Well, well, what have we here?" he asked pointedly.

"Treachery, I would say," Inazuma shot back. "What are you doing defending your Lady's sworn enemy? How do you think she will take the news?"

"About as well as she takes the news that you have hidden a pup with Sesshomaru," he replied calmly.

She glared at him through narrowed eyes, then said, "I scarcely call this upholding your oath to the Sky Clan."

"That is where you are mistaken. These children are just exactly as much Kazan-sama's grandchildren as yours are and they deserve as much of my consideration. I suggest you find another solution to your problem."

Inazuma drew herself to her full height and said, "We will talk more," then she drifted up into the air and vanished over the mountains to the north west.

Inuyasha watched her vanish, then remarked, "So that's Sesshomaru's wife. Why am I not surprised?"

"Don't judge her too harshly," Karimaru replied. "Her instincts are in the right place, but she is inexperienced and she sometimes makes bad decisions. She truly is up against a wall where her children are concerned. I should have expected her to try to find an easy way out." He then turned to Kourogi and said, "Now you, you little scamp, how did you work your way out of that collar?"

She grinned up at him, obviously very pleased with herself, and said, "I have the right sort of friends."

"Do you?" he asked.

She grinned impudently again, but did not offer any more details.

"I see. Perhaps I should send you on to another location and see what sort of friends you make there."

"Oh, please, not yet, Father. It's just started to get interesting here."

"Interesting, has it?" he asked.

She nodded eagerly.

"Very well." He turned to InuYasha and said, "Good luck. You're going to need it."


	63. Chapter 63 The Jewel Returns

Chapter 63 - The Jewel Returns

Miroku hung back as the village council meeting wrapped up and the elders dispersed to their normal occupations. Once again, InuYasha was conspicuous through his absence. The elders had not said anything overtly yet, but it was evident that they were disturbed.

Miroku heard plenty of muttering in the village gossip. Some were worried about whether InuYasha still had the wherewithal to protect the village. Others declared that his youkai nature was rising within him and he was about to go renegade on them. Many of the shopkeepers felt this was an underhanded bargaining ploy to extract more compensation from them for his services. Still, despite all the muttering and conjectures, no one had the guts to go see for themselves. It was high time something was done and since he, himself, had little fear of InuYasha, he was the best man for the job.

Miroku climbed the stairs leading to InuYasha's house and, hearing the usual childish uproar, poked his head in the door of the common room. Kagome had her brood gathered around the kitchen table, ostensibly doing "lessons". Today's endeavor involved writing practice, but it was coming apart as Tsuchiya flicked his inky brush at Toushi and Nariko while Taiba made a glorious mess stirring in the ink pots and smearing his inky hands all over his paper.

"Good morning, Kagome. Is InuYasha around?" Miroku asked.

"No. He's in his tree," Kagome replied, grabbing Toushi's ear as she screeched and lunged at Tsuchiya for ruining her paper.

"Again?" Miroku asked.

"Still." Kagome said shortly.

"Should I go talk to him?" Miroku inquired.

"Yes, but it won't make any difference," she snapped. A moment later, she sighed ruefully and brushed her hair back out of her eyes. "I can't talk to him anymore. I just want to throttle him, and that doesn't help anything. I hope you can get through to him."

"What's his problem?"

"Oh, he's carrying on like a drama queen over Tetsusaiga. He's never going to see it again, and his life is over and... Oh, don't get me going." Kagome bit her lip and turned away, tears in her eyes. "I'm about ready to kill him."

'Drama queen', that was a new one. Miroku considered the term as he walked to InuYasha's tree. He couldn't speak yet for how well it described InuYasha, but it was an excellent depiction of his oldest daughter. She and Sango had been knocking heads regularly over doing her share of the work and just what was proper decorum for a young lady. Miroku seemed to be spending his life lately trying to avoid getting roped into the battles. Every time he opened his mouth, they both wound up mad at him.

Ah, well, that wan't really the issue of the moment. He arrived at InuYasha's tree and looked up to see InuYasha draped morosely over a branch with his arms and legs dangling limply.

"Good morning. We missed you at the council meeting," Miroku said cheerfully.

InuYasha sighed. "Do they want anything?" he asked with great weariness.

"They want to know why you haven't been attending," Miroku replied pointedly.

"What's the point?" InuYasha said hopelessly. "I can't do anything for them."

"There's actually rather a lot you can do, but not while you're moping in that tree."

"Hrmph." InuYasha dismissed that thought with a twitch of his ear.

"So, do you have any news about Tetsusaiga?"

InuYasha looked askance at him, then remarked, "It's been months. I expect Toto-sai is going to blow that mountain up before he realizes it's hopeless." Right on cue, the volcano to the north rumbled ominously, then belched a multi-colored puff of smoke into the sky. "Oh, look. It's pink and and yellow this time."

Miroku fought down the urge to smack InuYasha with his staff, mostly because he couldn't reach high enough to hit him.

"InuYasha, you do remember that you managed to live for quite a long time without Tetsusaiga. I'm sure you didn't lose all those abilities when you got the sword."

"Actually, I did have the sword. We were linked through the black pearl in my eye. I just didn't know it."

Miroku frowned and rifled through his memory for what he knew about the black pearl. As he remembered it, it had just been a gateway into the Youkai Graveyard. He didn't see how it could also have provided contact between InuYasha and the sword. "How do you figure that?"

"All those years of fighting daily just to survive, and I never lost it and went total youkai? There's no way. I had to be in contact with the sword somehow. Not now, though. Nope, I'm completely on my own."

...and not thinking about anyone but yourself. Miroku could see why Kagome wanted to throttle him. "So that's it? You're just going to roll over and die? What about Kagome and the kids?"

"They're better off without me. I can't go youkai-mad and kill them all if I'm gone, now can I?"

"How very considerate of you," Miroku said sarcastically. "I'm sure they appreciate your concern. You do remember you have a contract with the village, don't you? No one has given you leave to break that contract."

InuYasha's ears sagged even lower and he seemed to sink into the branch.

"You know, just an appearance of strength can work wonders to prevent problems. That's how you survived all those years without Tetsusaiga. Right now, you might as well have a 'kick me' sign on your back. We're a whole lot less likely to have an incident if you act like everything is under control. Just something for you to think about while you're rotting up there." Miroku turned and left InuYasha to his self-pitying wallow.

"Any luck?" Kagome asked as Miroku headed down the stairs to the village.

"Not really," Miroku replied. "Give him a good 'Sit' for me, will you?"

It made Kagome feel oddly better to know that Miroku also found InuYasha provoking.

In return, InuYasha felt Miroku was very provoking. His comfortable depression had been punctured by Miroku's jabs and he now felt out of sorts and resentful. How dare Miroku suggest he was a slacker! It wasn't his fault that Tetsusaiga was hopelessly beyond repair and he was dangerously unprotected. He really was doing everyone else a favor by isolating himself; with luck they would be safely far away when the inevitable happened and he did go uncontrollably youkai...

Except...

Miroku was right, and he knew it. Hadn't he spent every new moon of his life bluffing his way through the night? He knew how it worked. It didn't mean he had to pretend to like it. Late the next day, he dropped from the tree and returned to his family and his work. After a few brushes with his very prickly temper, half the village found themselves wishing he had stayed in his tree.

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It should have been simpler than this. Kikyo had returned to the Realm of the Living long enough to learn that InuYasha's "betrayal" had been engineered by Onigumo-Naraku. She had worked her way through her life-consuming anger and longing to a reconciliation with her former lover. She reentered the Realm of the Dead with a light heart, believing all of her issues were resolved and that she could sleep peacefully until she returned as the girl Kagome.

She found she could not rest. Kagome nagged at the back of her mind, eating away her hard-won peace. Was it true that she was to become that vapid girl? Was it true that Kagome would take her place as InuYasha's soulmate? Kagome had all that power and no idea how to use it. Her heart was generous, but still, she was just so ... ordinary. What did InuYasha see in her? And how could she, Kikyo, have been reborn as someone so commonplace.

Images of Kagome passed before her wherever she went. At length, she chose a grassy patch under a tree to sit and confront her fate. She would not be able to pass on to her new life until she had accepted it, so she may as well get on with it. It looked like it would take about five hundred years.

It was Onigumo's fault. The nature of the Realm of the Dead was that, although multitudes dwelled there, they each were isolated in a world populated by their personal karma. Influences outside of their personal experiences seldom disturbed the souls who were working their way through their psychic scars. Kikyo was vaguely aware of the other dead who wandered past her; their barely visible figures were just shadows that rippled briefly through her world. The storms of great battles that sent floods of dead streaming into the Realm of the Dead appeared to her as merely a dimming of the sky. Since her arrival, only two events had been sufficiently close to her psyche to penetrate the walls of her world.

She had known instantly when Onigumo-Naraku perished and, stripped of his youkai element, entered the Realm of the Dead as simply Onigumo. Since they were each part of the other's death-anguish, they could fully interact. Indeed, Onigumo's first act upon arrival was to seek her out.

"So, my beautiful miko, are you satisfied?" he asked. "I am here, just as you wished. Of course, so are you, which satisfies me. She did it, you know, your little other self, and now she has your beloved InuYasha. You have no idea how much it delights me, that I have you, and she has him."

Kikyo eyed him coolly, then said, "You do not have me. You only dream you do. You no longer trouble me, so all you shall see from here on is your karma-dream of me. Begone." She clapped her hands and he vanished, but from that moment on, Kagome haunted her.

Some time after she met Onigumo, she felt the Jewel arrive in the Realm, unbound to any soul. It fell from the sky to come to rest on an isolated promontory by the sea, lodged in the crevice of a rock high above the waves. She had no desire to seek it out. It had ruined her fate twice; there was no need to give it another chance. One way or another, they would find each other when it was time for her rebirth.

She needed to settle herself with Kagome, and all that Kagome represented, so she placed all her effort into reconciling herself to her new life as Kagome.

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At one time it had been a significant monastery, but now all that remained was the great entry gate with its two fearsome Nio statues, a corner of the monks' quarters and the foundations of the temple. The local villagers avoided it, fearing the ghosts of the murdered monks that haunted the grounds. In the years since the massacre, the forest had returned. Cryptomeria and cypress trees rose among the building ruins, jasmine overran the grounds and a great wisteria vine climbed the trees surrounding the temple, burying everything in a sweet-scented jungle. Insects, birds and furtive small animals were now the temple's inhabitants. The monks' chants had become the drone of the insects, the calls of the birds, the sigh of the wind and the scuffling of small animals under the vines.

After the spring thaw, Daruma moved into one of the two remaining cells in the monks' quarters and turned the other cell into a small meditation room. The two women who had rescued him continued to support him, filling his begging bowl every day and providing him with old blankets for his bedding.

The silence and the deep isolation called to Daruma. Unlike the terrified villagers who shunned the site, he felt a kinship with the ghosts. He bore witness to their horror and pain. It validated his memories of his long lost family and soothed their tormented souls. Living among the tormented ghosts of the murdered monks, he was at peace for the first time in years.

Daruma spent his days clearing the overgrowth from the temple ruins and meditating to commune with the murdered ghosts. One by one, they whispered their tales to him, told him of the wounds that prevented them from moving on. As he cleared back the vines, he found what was left of their remains and their treasures. He buried their bones with reverence and built alcoves of the tumbled-down stones and charred beams for the artifacts. One by one, the ghosts were soothed and their spirits passed on to the Realm of the Dead for their final healing.

The whispers of the ghosts gave way to the song of cicadas as summer rose to its peak. A melancholy arose within him as his ghostly companions faded away, leaving him too much alone with his thoughts. It was good having a task in a hidden corner of the world, but what was he to do when the last ghost was soothed and he was truly alone?

On this day, he pulled away the jasmine that buried the great bell tower of the monastery, revealing by degrees the stone steps, the raised dais and the bell itself, now lying within the ruins of the roofed bell-mount that once housed it. The huge timber clapper lay beside it, charred black from the fire that had engulfed the monastery.

Daruma gathered a great armful of the jasmine vines and slung them up on his shoulder. He carefully picked his way down the narrow path he had cleared on the steps and tossed his burden on his refuse pile, then returned for his next load. This time, his feet got tangled in the uncleared vines on the way down and he tumbled down the steps to land heavily on something hard that lay hidden in the foliage at the bottom. Groaning, he wrestled himself free of his load and rooted around in the vines to find what he had landed on. A moment later, he lifted a small bronze meditation buddha from its hiding place.

Ah, another artifact. He inspected it briefly. It was caked with dirt and clinging roots, but still whole. He carried it to the well and collected some rags and brushes to clean it. The two remaining monk ghosts followed him to bear witness to the restoration of the buddha. He drew water, poured some over the little statue, then began scrubbing away the dirt.

"Eh, Daruma-sama, what's this you have today?"

Daruma looked up from cleaning the buddha. The women were here with his food for the day. He held up the buddha for their view.

"Ah, that is a good find," the younger woman said with approval. "It will please the spirits to have it restored to its place."

"Yes," he said with a touch of resignation.

The older woman looked at him keenly, then said, "You look troubled, Daruma-sama. Do the spirits disapprove of your work?"

"No, no. They are pleased. It's just... The ghosts are my companions, my friends. There are only two left. What shall I do when they are gone?"

"You should find your companions among the living," she said firmly.

"I'm better off befriending the dead. My living companions always die soon after I meet them,'' he replied sadly.

"The dead that linger in this world are not healthy companions," she advised. "Their anger and pain will consume you if you do not take care."

Daruma shrugged it off. Their anger and pain or his, it was all one to him. Anger and pain had defined his life even before he came here. The dead monks were no threat.

"Eh, I suppose you know what's best. I'm just an old potion brewer," the older woman sighed. "I have a gift of incense from the headman. He says his great uncle was one of the monks here and he hopes the scent pleases the ghosts and brings their blessing on his family."

"I shall burn it when I place this Buddha in its niche," Daruma offered. "That should be pleasing to them."

The women took their leave and Daruma finished cleaning the buddha. When he was done, he reverently placed the statue in his meditation cell, then went to the remains of the temple to construct its niche. He found a large broken pot that made an excellent shelter when it was set upside down. Daruma put a broken flagstone inside the pot to make a base, then went back for the statue.

It fit in the broken pot just as if the pot had been designed for that purpose. The serene face of the buddha seemed to smile its approval of its new home. Daruma stepped back to admire the proportions of his creation. The statue seemed to float within its niche; the blackened stone of its base was nearly invisible and the light entered through the broken face of the pot to illuminate just the statue, leaving the interior of the pot in shadowy darkness. Daruma smiled back at the statue, pleased that it was pleased, then he fetched the incense and an ember from his fire.

Propping the incense stick up with a pair of rocks, he pressed the ember to the tip and waited until the smoke curled up, then he knelt before the buddha and asked it to find peace in its new home and to bless the headman who sent the incense for its pleasure. The two ghosts behind him ceased their querulous muttering and knelt to either side of him to seek their peace in meditation on the restored buddha. Daruma joined their meditation, fixing his gaze of the seemingly floating buddha and chanting his praise of Amida Buddha while he dreamed of the Pure Land that awaited him at the end of his travails. When he finished his meditation and returned to his world, the ghosts were gone.

He went back to clearing and restoring the bell tower. Without the company of the ghosts, the silence of the temple became oppressive. There was a palpable weight to the buzz of the cicadas that made the still-sultry air of the environs close in on him as he worked. The birds and mice didn't care what he did; there was no one left to note and approve of his work. He came to long for the company of the departed ghosts.

He maintained his habit of meditating through the heat of the afternoon. He found the newly restored buddha a fine focus for his contemplation. A few days after he had placed the buddha, he found a stick of incense that had rolled behind his shelf and decided to use it to enhance that day's experience.

The smoke coiled up before the buddha as Daruma settled himself, giving it a semblance of motion and life. He took slow deep breaths and allowed his muscles to relax as he looked at the serene buddha's figure.

"Namu Amida-butsu, namu Amida-butsu, namu Amida-butsu," he chanted softly as he gazed with devotion at the little statue. The gleaming figure floated before him, serenely unconcerned with the troubles of this world, then, as his gaze continued uninterrupted, it became a dark figure limned in light. Its eyelids flickered as a wave in scented smoke drifted before its face and it breathed in the smoke. Daruma's heart leapt in a surge of terror and wild hope. Amida was coming for him. Was his time in this world through? Was he about to join Amida in his Western paradise? The buddha's eyes opened and it gazed back at him, watching him with compassion.

"Namu Amida-butsu, namu Amida-butsu, namu Amida-butsu." The chant continued. At this moment of epiphany, he wanted to assure Amida of his constant devotion. Amida's avatar smiled at him and Daruma felt himself float free, all sensation in his limbs now gone. Hope and terror rose to a fever pitch as Daruma slipped out of his world and joined Amida in the Between Place. Bodhisattvas and demons swirled around them in a great directionless vastness. Amida beckoned, and Daruma followed his lead to the great Western Paradise, where he expected to find his friends, the ghost monks.

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Muchitsujo-rei could scarcely contain his glee. It had taken six months for his little monk to become needy enough to open the gates into his mind, but now he was here and actively seeking a trip to the Realm of the Dead. This was absolutely perfect.

Daruma clung close to him, fearful of the apparitions floating about them.

"_Have no fear. They cannot touch us._" Muchitsujo-rei crooned.

"Yes, Amida-sama... What are they, Amida-sama?"

"_The attachments others cast off as they arrived at my Paradise and the bodhisattvas that drive them away_."

"Ah." Daruma watched them with wonder as they traveled. He wondered what his attachments would look like. He was looking forward to letting them go.

They traveled a great timeless distance, then approached a shimmering wall that stretched limitlessly before them. It looked vaguely familiar to Daruma, although he could not recall just when he had encountered it before. "What is this, Amida-sama?" he asked his guide as they came close enough to bathe in its radiance.

Muchitsujo-rei skimmed in close to the wall guarding the Realm of the Dead, and drew close to Daruma. "_This is the gate to my Paradise. Your family and friends are waiting for you on the other side. Come, let me hold you close so that the gate will open for you._"

Daruma trustingly embraced his 'Amida' and together they passed through the Wall and fell to the ground among the Dead.

Daruma rose and looked around. This place... it was not the gloriously shining world of peace he had envisioned. The people he saw were all confronting demons, some small and others monstrous. There was no one he knew here to greet him and celebrate his successful arrival.

"Amida-sama, I do not understand. I thought this would be more peaceful."

"_You have just entered and are in the place where people cast off their attachments. As you can see, the attachments do not like to go easily. No one can go farther in until they are free of these burdens._"

"Oh. How do I cast off my attachments?"

"_You are special to me, and so I will give you a gift that will make it easier. I will give you a jewel that has great power to grant your wishes. With that, you can easily cast off all that afflicts you. Come._"

"Yes, Amida-sama. I am very grateful, Amida-sama." Daruma followed Muchitsujo-rei's lead across a tree-studded meadow and up onto a rugged, rocky peninsula that thrust into a restless sea. Daruma clambered after his guide to the point of the peninsula.

_"B_e_hold, down there you may find the jewel that will answer your dreams._"

"Amida-sama, that looks very difficult," Daruma said, looking over the edge of the cliff and marking the location of the jewel.

"_This jewel shall not go to one who is so unworthy that he fears to collect it_."

Daruma bit his lip and looked again. He did not want to have to fight off his attachments when the simpler path lay right before him. "Of course not, Amida-sama. I will show you I am worthy."

With the comforting thought that, while Amida might test his resolve, he surely would not send him someplace truly perilous, Daruma picked his way down the cliff to the ledge where the jewel was lodged. Amida must have wanted a great deal of assurance for his gift. A stone kicked out under the pressure of Daruma's foot and he slid down the cliff well past the jewel, coming to rest on a narrow ledge just above the churning water. He was horrified to see people in the water, swimming, floating or clinging to the rocks in the surf. He could see that all they lacked was a hand up to the first ledge to enter the Paradise. This must be part of his test; did he have the bodhisattva compassion to help them on their way? He knelt down and held out his hand, calling, "Take my hand, brother, and I will help you up!"

A man in the surf lifted his arms and Daruma seized his hand and pulled him up. "Go, Brother, climb the cliff and go into the land to shed your attachments and find your salvation."

Another man swam near and Daruma helped him. Then a woman, a child, another man, and the people let go of the rocks and rallied their strength and clustered under the ledge to be pulled out one by one.

Muchitsujo-rei watched eagerly for the return of Daruma with the jewel. He was dumbfounded by the wet and battered man who came up instead. His hopes were dashed again when another man arrived, then a woman, a child, a man, two women who clung to each other for support, a man carrying a baby and a toddler, a woman... The line of people coming up the cliff was endless, and none of them were Daruma. What was the little fool doing?

He looked down the face of the cliff and was appalled to see Daruma at the water' s edge helping people out of the water. What was he thinking? "_Never mind them, get the jewel! We don't have forever!_" The Gatekeeper could be here at any moment.

"Master? These people... They also want to come to your Paradise and be relieved of their attachments. Should we not bestow them with your great compassion by helping them?"

Muchitsujo-rei would far rather have blasted them all to another Realm, but that would not get him the Jewel. The young monk must continue to believe he was Amida, at least until they were free of the Realm of the Dead. How could he get Daruma back on track?

"_Ahhh, yes, but you must not be greedy, Daruma. You are robbing these people of their chance to earn their own merit_."

Daruma looked up at his master in confusion for a long, long moment. Then his face cleared, and he said "Ah, of course. I see now, Master." He turned back to the waiting people, pulled a burly man out of the water and told him, "Do you see Amida-Buddha up there watching us? You have earned a great honor. I have helped you; now you must help other people before you can continue up the cliff. When you find another man strong enough to take over, charge him with the job, then you may leave. This will earn you merit before Amida-Buddha and start you on your bodhisattva path."

"Yes, young master." The man and Daruma bowed to each other, then turned to bow to the figure of Amida at the top of the cliff. The man turned to resume the job of pulling the people from the water, and Daruma climbed up the cliff again in quest of the Jewel.

The approach was difficult enough from above; from below, it was nearly impossible. Nevertheless, Daruma worked his way up and across the cliff with great determination, still upheld by the belief that Amida would not allow anything to happen to him. He finally reached the cleft that held the Jewel and, stretching out as far as he could reach, he hooked the Jewel with two fingers and scooped it up.

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A barely perceptible shockwave rippled through the Realm of the Dead and across into all the Realms beyond as the Jewel once more made contact with a living soul. Most of the dead souls it encountered paused a moment, then shook off their brief confusion and resumed their previous occupation.

Kikyo gasped as her world dimmed briefly, then exploded with vivid, dancing colors. A brief vision of a young monk holding the Jewel floated before her eyes, then faded away.

That... That monk was living! What was he doing here? How did he even get here? What purpose could a Buddhist monk have with the Jewel? He was living; he would take it with him to the Realm of the Living, to once more plague that place with its false promises. How regrettable, that the Living must once more add the Jewel to their sorrows.

She remembered the sorrows the Jewel had brought to her, how lonely she was guarding it, how betrayed she felt when she thought InuYasha had used her love to gain the Jewel, how foolish she had been to try to use the Jewel to conquer Onigumo/Naraku to her everlasting sorrow, how she had contended with her living incarnation, Kagome, for the heart of her lover...

Kagome... Kagome had to be the one who to return the Jewel to the Realm of the Living. Or rather, she, Kikyo, would need the Jewel in order to be reborn as Kagome, for she had heard the the Jewel returned from the Realm of the Dead within Kagome. And she had to do that, else she would never have her chance to share a life with her beloved...

If all was to proceed as it was ordained, she had to stop that monk.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The shock of initial contact made him lose his grip on the cliff and he fell down into the water. Only the thought of the value of Amida's gift kept his hand clenched around the small stone. He surfaced, gasping from the shock of the cold water and the tingle from the Jewel that made his head dance. Caring hands fished him out of the water and placed him securely on the ledge of the cliff at the water's edge. Other hands guided him up the cliff until he once more stood before Amida.

He held out the Jewel, and said, "I have it, Master, see? It... it feels so strange. It makes my head swim. What do I do with it?"

"You give it to me."

Daruma turned in astonishment to see a beautiful young miko standing beside him holding out her hand. He was sure she hadn't been there a moment ago.

Amida did not even look at her. He serenely told Daruma, "_Pay no heed to the phantom. It seeks to rob you of my gift._"

"This is a deadly gift," Kikyo said earnestly. "Its poison has corrupted many souls and caused untold grief. I was its last guardian and I assure you, it is only safe here among the Dead."

Amida said, "_Ask the phantom why it no longer holds the Jewel if it is indeed its guardian._"

"Well, Phantom, why do you no longer hold the Jewel of Granted Desires?"

"This is the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls," Kikyo corrected. "It can grant wishes, but beware of those wishes, for the Jewel will twist your wish to suit its own ends. I was foolish and allowed myself a very small wish, and now I am dead and all that I loved is lost to me."

"Master?" Daruma asked his Amida.

"_The phantom never had my permission to keep the Jewel, so, of course, it was harmed by its presumption. You do have my permission_." Amida's benevolent smile shone on Daruma like gentle Spring sunshine.

Daruma beamed back at him and bowed. "Yes, Master. This small one is very grateful." He turned to Kikyo and said coldly, "Begone, Devil of my Attachments and do not rouse my doubts again."

As Kikyo had banished Onigumo from her presence, so Daruma banished Kikyo from his presence, and Kikyo found that she could no longer penetrate his barriers to plead her case. She watched in dismay as he was pulled back to his Life by his still beating heart, bearing the Jewel and a smirking Muchitsujo-rei along with him. In wild desperation, she flung herself after them and rode the slipstream of their passage back to the Realm of the Living, then was drawn away by the tidal pull of her own remains to find herself hovering over her grave, a phantom outside her proper Realm.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daruma roused from his meditation to see the little buddha image looking back at him, once more a lifeless statue in an overturned pot. The memories of his extraordinary journey became jumbled and began to fade like dreams on waking. He blinked slowly as he returned to himself, then began to wriggle his fingers and toes to return the feeling to them. Something small and hard tumbled out of his hand and dropped to the ground at his feet. He carefully bent his stiff neck to look down and saw a gently glowing, translucent sphere illuminating his toes. Wait - that hadn't been there before. That stone was part of his dream. Amida had given it to him to help him cast off his attachments, except, now he couldn't remember how he was supposed to use it. Sighing, he scooped it up and wrapped it carefully in his robes. Those memories would return when Amida felt the time was right.

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Over the course of the next moon, an observant man might have noticed a hazy dust devil floating over the grave of the dead priestess Kikyo. A man stepping through the graveyard would have coughed or sneezed as he passed her grave, or felt the sting of dust griming his eyes. But the men of the village were absorbed in their own small tasks, and no one had occasion to walk through the graveyard, so the disturbance went unnoticed.

Deep in the forest in the late afternoon light, Kikyo examined her reflection in a still pool. All the painstaking work had paid off; she had finally assembled enough bone and grave dust to reconstruct her body as it was before she had died the last time. She ran her hands over her face, along the curves of her body, took a deep breath and sighed it out. Everything looked right, felt right; she now had a palpable presence in this Realm. She did not know how long she could hold maintain this body; the effort required to hold it together was considerable. Still, she now had the means to deliver her message, and now, all that remained was to find the one person who would care to hear it.

The sun had set and a waning moon was high in the sky when she arrived back at her village and entered the house of her sister.

Kaede started awake when the mat across her door moved to show a woman's figure silhouetted in a flash of moonlight. "Who goes there?" she challenged. "Who disturbs me without announcing himself?"

"Is this how you greet your elder sister who has been gone for so long?" Kikyo asked.

"Kikyo!" Kaede gasped. "Is it now my time? Have you come for me?"

"No, I have no business with you. I need her. A dire thing has happened and she must know of it. I doubt I can remain long enough to do the work myself. Still, while I am here, I would have a miko's clothes, so I came to ask them of you."

"Ah. Of course. In that chest. But what has happened? What would rouse you from Death's sleep?"

Kikyo looked back from the chest at her sister, measuring her against her ancient memory of a little girl with small power. She saw an old woman, still small in power but now large in experience. She would be foolish to cast away this resource. "You remember the Jewel, do you not, Younger Sister? It was stolen from the Dead by a foolish monk who is guided by a false god. This god had the aspect of Amida-Buddha, but his reiki was not of the Buddha's Realm."

"Then what was he?" Kaede asked.

"He felt... like a kami." Kikyo said slowly as she probed her memory.

"Why would a kami impersonate a Buddha?" Kaede asked. "That's the act of a deceitful youkai. Are you sure it wasn't youkai?"

"I do know the difference between youki and reiki," Kikyo snapped as she pulled on the clothes and tied back her hair.

"Your pardon, Big Sister," Kaede said soothingly. "I am just trying to understand. Can you tell me anything else?"

"Perhaps you can tell me something," Kikyo said. "When Kagome first arrived, did she bear the Jewel?"

"Yes. Yes, she did. It was inside her, although she knew nothing about it. I remember well when it was revealed. It was the night InuYasha revived from your seal..."

"So. It is true. The rest of what I have to say is for her. It is her fate that will be affected if the Jewel is not returned to the Dead. Where do I find her?"

"She lives in the manor house at the top of the hill," Kaede replied. "InuYasha is there, too," she added in warning.

Kikyo nodded. She already knew that. It would be awkward, but she could manage him. InuYasha no longer haunted her. She turned to go.

"Kikyo, Sister, talk to me. Let me help where I can," Kaede said to her retreating back. The mat fell back across the door and Kikyo was gone.

Kikyo spent the remainder of the night in the forest strengthening her hold in this Realm. When she felt stable, she returned to the village, arriving at midmorning. A sudden shyness overtook her; she did not want to be seen by the residents, but she stood at the edge of the forest to watch for a while. Bittersweet memories flooded her as she watched the villagers in the fields. There was a time when she had a place in this world, difficult and lonely though it had been. Her time was no more, and if she did not succeed in her task, she might not have a place here in the future.

She could see the manor house from her vantage point. She walked toward it, skirting the forest edge then climbing the plateau to where the house stood. Looking out across a large open field, she saw a small house flanked by an herb garden and a couple of sheds. Now at the point of reckoning, she hesitated. When it came down to it, just how much did she really want to become Kagome?

As Kikyo hestitated, Kagome appeared from behind the house carrying a large heavy basket. A moment later, a little girl about four years old followed, carrying a smaller basket in one hand. Kagome walked to a set of planks which stood at the edge of the field and put down her basket, her back turned toward Kikyo. The little girl followed her, and handed Kagome pins from her basket, as Kagome picked up wet clothes out of the large basket and started stretching them and fastening them to the planks.

Kikyo watched, her heart aching. So they had a child. This child would not be if she did not deliver her message. Still, she hesitated, for it was the oh-so-ordinary Kagome she would create of herself if her message was delivered successfully. Did she really want to be so very ordinary?

A loud, angry screech from the house interrupted her musings. "I'm telling Mama!"

A little girl about seven years old with long black hair braided down her back marched out of the door, soaking wet in front and seething with righteous indignation. She stood on the porch and yelled, "Mama!"

"It was an accident, Mama!" A boy a couple of years older hurried out the door, hot on her heels. He was lanky and tall for his age, with his hair drawn up in a typical boy's ponytail. There was no doubt they were InuYasha's children. Despite their black hair, dog's ears peeked out of their hair, currently laid back as they snarled at each other.

"It was not! You did that on purpose, Tsuchiya!" the girl screeched.

"I did not," the boy retorted. "It slipped out of my hand."

"Oh, really! Then why am I the only one that's wet?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're just lucky that way."

The girl growled and prepared to leap on her brother as Kagome called, "All right, you two, you're supposed to be washing dishes."

"But Mama, he splashed soap in my eyes," the girl complained.

"Mama, the plate slipped," Tsuchiya protested.

"Toushi, your eyes seem to be working just fine. Tsuchiya, put some effort into keeping the water in the dishpan. Now, get back to those dishes."

The children stared daggers at each other instead of complying, then Toushi suddenly lit up and darted across the field, calling, "Papa!"

"Hey!" Tsuchiya shouted, racing after her.

Kikyo's heart did a double-thump as InuYasha came into view, climbing stairs that dropped from the plateau to the village below. He had filled out since the last time Kikyo had seen him, looking sleek, fit and well cared for. She had only thought he could no longer affect her; seeing him, she realized he was the reason Kagome disturbed her so. Onigumo's taunt floated in her ears as she watched him with his little family. _...now she has your beloved InuYasha. You have no idea how much it delights me, that I have you, and she has him_.

Toushi skidded to a halt in front of InuYasha and rapidly began to plead her case. As soon as her brother caught up, he launched his rebuttal.

It didn't take long for the dispute to collapse into name calling, then a shoving match. The two combatants faced each other, ears back and eyes blazing. Then they flew at each other, talons bared. InuYasha caught each of them by the back of the shirt, yanked them apart and plopped them down hard an arm length apart.

He sent Toushi into the herb garden to weed and Tsuchiya in the opposite direction to split and stack firewood in the wood shed. They stood sullenly for a moment, but under their father's relentless glare, they reluctantly obeyed.

Toushi moved first, flouncing around and marching toward the garden, although she paused partway there to shoot a couple of rude faces at her brother. He returned them in kind, then finally slouched off to the woodshed, where he picked up a couple of pieces of wood and slowly stacked them. He glanced back; his father was still watching. He returned to work, putting a bit more effort into the job.

InuYasha watched his son a couple of minutes longer, then, satisfied the boy was focussed on his chore, he turned his attention to the smaller girl who had been waiting patiently on the outskirts of the action for her turn to greet him. She darted in the rest of the way and he swooped her up, tossed her gently and caught her in a hug. They talked quietly for a moment, then InuYasha lifted the girl up to sit on his shoulders and walked across the field to greet Kagome.

Seeing those three children, who by rights should have been hers, was painful enough. Watching InuYasha and Kagome kiss with the casual ease of long time lovers was gut-wrenching, and when they broke apart and Kikyo finally saw Kagome from the front, she realized she was pregnant.

Tears swam in Kikyo's eyes, blurring her vision for a time. That life she had dared to dream of having was playing out in front of her, except that she wasn't there. Kagome, that "other me", that ordinary girl who had inherited her soul, had it all.

She ripped her eyes away from InuYasha and Kagome; it was just too painful. She watched the two older children. Toushi had settled into her chore and was absorbed in weeding the herb patch and training the plants on a trellis. Tsuchiya had just finished splitting a large round and was stacking the wood in the shed when something caught his eye. He stuffed the rest of the sticks into the shed haphazardly and dropped to his knees, stalking something. After a quick snatch, he rose grinning, a lizard clutched in his hand. He glanced first toward his sister, then to his parents. Toushi was crouched down, her back to him, intently weaving a vigorously growing vine into a trellis. Kagome and InuYasha were still deep in their conversation, whatever it involved, only absently continuing with their other activities.

The boy's grin became decidedly wicked. Quickly and silently, he slunk to the edge of the herb garden, focussing tightly on his sister's back. She straightened to stretch after tying the vine, and just at the moment her shirt fell back from her neck, he expertly tossed the lizard down her back.

She jumped up, dancing and squirming frantically until the traumatized lizard was finally free of her clothes, then she spun on her madly giggling brother and charged at him, murder in her eyes.

"Uh-oh." He sobered quickly and barely dodged her first slash, then scrambled madly to get some distance before her claws raked him. They dodged and lunged a few times, then Tsuchiya cut for the forest, his sister right on his heels. Naturally, the path he chose went right through where Kagome was hanging clothes. He dodged Kagome and almost cleared the laundry basket, kicking it over as he passed, then Toushi trampled the clothes into the dirt before they both disappeared into the forest. Kagome made a snatch after them, overreaching her balance as she missed and nearly fell heavily.

InuYasha caught her and eased her to the ground, growling, "I'll go get them." He plunged into the forest after them.

Kagome stood up and reloaded her basket, looking very disgruntled.

A short time later, Kikyo heard rustling in the trees overhead. Looking up, she saw Tsuchiya standing on a branch well up a tree. He was carefully studying the trees behind him for any sign of movement, ears pricked and scanning carefully. Satisfied he had escaped for the moment, he started to study the trees nearby to plan his next move.

Another sharp rustle from a neighboring tree made him jump and brace, then he relaxed as a squirrel came chattering down the tree. He missed the barely visible eye and ear that peered around the tree's trunk, marking his position. The eye and ear slid back out of view, and a moment later, Kikyo saw Toushi silently slide onto a branch above and to the side of where the boy stood. She eyed him, measuring the distance, crouched and leapt, crying, "Gotcha!" just before she slammed into his chest.

"Whoa!" He flailed wildly, trying to dig into the tree trunk, missed completely, and both of them plunged to the ground in a heap in front of Kikyo. A vigorous wrestling match followed as the boy tried to fend off his furious sister.

Tsuchiya saw Kikyo first; his eyes got big and he yelped, "Mama, it's not what you think, I... You're not Mama."

Toushi gasped and spun around, staring at Kikyo with huge startled eyes. Her expression then closed into a combative, suspicious scowl, just exactly like her father's. She growled, "You're not even alive! Who are you? Why do you look like Mama?"

She stared a moment longer, then, not getting an answer, she leapt into the trees and disappeared, followed by her rattled brother.

InuYasha arrived few moments later, his eyes and ears turned to the trees around him as he tracked the children. "One of these days I am going to wring that boy's neck," he muttered, thoroughly exasperated.

"They're beautiful," Kikyo said softly.

InuYasha spun to face her, eyes widening as he recognized her. "K... Kikyo! I... I thought you were gone!"

"No one is ever really gone," Kikyo said, looking away. "Except for, maybe, the Buddha."

"But I wouldn't have..."

"I did not come here to discuss what might have been or should have been. Those decisions are done. I came because there is something I must tell Kagome."

"Kagome! Anything you want to tell to Kagome, you tell to me," InuYasha declared.

"So which is it, InuYasha, Kagome or me?" Kikyo said bitterly. "You never did know your mind."

"You know that's not fair, Kikyo. InuYasha's heart makes his choices."

Kikyo and InuYasha both turned to see Kagome walk into the glen. She was armed, bow in hand and arrow knocked, but she put the arrow away as she approached.

"Toushi and Tsuchiya came back to the house with the tale of meeting a dead woman who looked like me," Kagome told InuYasha. "Since we believed Kikyo-san had moved on many years ago, I feared darker things." She turned to Kikyo and added, "You truly were gone. We all felt it. InuYasha's 'choice' if you will, was made for him. Leave off tormenting him and tell me what you came to say."

This woman was not at all as Kikyo remembered her. The Kagome she remembered was unbearably naive. Having no real concept of her power nor any idea how to use it, she had seemed to float through her adventures protected more by raw luck than skill. The woman standing before her was at the height of her power and she knew well how to wield it. Life had tempered her, though; her former open friendliness was now guarded with a prudent wariness.

"The Jewel has once more left the Realm of the Dead. It is here now, among the Living. Do you understand what that means?" Kikyo asked.

"It can mean many things," Kagome replied. "Tell me what it means to you."

"Think, fool! You were born with the Jewel within you. I must bring the Jewel with me when I am born again, if I am to truly become you. Without the Jewel, your fate, our fate, will be completely changed. The Jewel must return to the Dead before I am born again, or all of this will never be." _And I want it to be. I want to live with InuYasha as you and have those beautiful children_.

Kagome and InuYasha exchanged appalled looks.

"Where is the Jewel now?" InuYasha asked.

"I don't know where it is, but I do know it was a Buddhist monk that took it. He was guided by a spirit being."

"What does a Buddhist monk want with the Jewel?" Kagome wondered. "Buddhists gain their power through releasing possessions, not gaining them."

"He believes the Jewel was a gift from the spirit. He is simple and does not understand his peril."

"What can you tell me about the spirit?" Kagome asked.

"It felt like a kami."

"The monks I know are not guided by kami," Kagome observed.

"Like I said, he is simple. I don't know if he can tell the difference between kami and bodhisattvas. He ..." Kikyo faltered mid-thought and swayed. "Ah, so soon. My strength is failing... My time here is done." She held up her hand and watched wistfully as the will that kept her among the Living faded and her body dissolved back into grave dust. Her message was delivered. There was no more she could do.

Kagome and InuYasha gazed at the sad little heap of dusty clothes that moments before had been Kikyo, lost in their thoughts and memories.

Finally, Kagome roused herself and said, "I thought we were free of the Jewel. It never really goes away, does it? How do you suppose we are going to find it? This is a big island and we have no idea where to start looking."

"I'm really not too worried about that," InuYasha replied grimly. "Every third-rate demon for miles around is going to be converging on that monk. He'll be easy to find, I just need to look for the youki hot spot. No, the hard part is going to be taking down the jumped-up youkai who's got the Jewel when I catch up with it."

He looked north toward Toto-sai's volcano. For the last three days, it had been wreathed in a gloomy gray-green smoke, rumbling sullenly. "This would be a lot easier with Tetsusaiga tucked back in my belt. I wonder when that old fool is finally going to get somewhere with it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

InuYasha was not the only one worrying about the theft of the Jewel. The kami cabal that worked to contain Muchitsujo-rei had been in a frenzy ever since the Jewel suddenly blossomed to life in the Living Realm. The Gatekeeper had committed seppuku before Emma-O to atone for his failure. Emma-O, himself, took the long trip to the Ryuujin's palace, where he spent endless days closeted with the old sea dragon discussing the implications of every rapid and eddy in the Game field. Inari was seen playing the courtesan for Muchitsujo-rei, flattering him outrageously and dancing attendance on his every whim. Hachiman took the matter of obtaining InuYasha's children's arms master into his own hands in typical Hachiman-fashion; his chosen man suddenly acquired a compulsion to travel. He did not make any preparations or take leave of his masters, instead he simply turned from his training exercise and left, still holding the staff he had been using in a demonstration.

A cluster of guards tried to stop him while another handful ran to report his strange behavior to the generals. Spooked by his blank stare and heedless strength, the guards failed to hold him in the Morii compound. The horsemen dispatched after him encountered a impenetrable fog that did not lift until they gave up the chase and turned for home. Since it was obvious to even the most obtuse observer that the gods were involved, the Morii chose discretion and began inquiries for a new arms master.

"T_hat was subtle,_" the River Woman muttered acidly as she watched the proceedings take place on the Game field. "_Even Muchitsujo-rei won't be so dense as to miss that one._"

"_Actually, he will,_" Hachiman said from behind her back.

She flinched and shrank in on herself. When had he arrived? "_Why do you think that?_" she asked once she had gathered her scattered wits.

"_He's so wrapped up in his glee at holding the Jewel he isn't seeing anything else right now. It was the best time for a bold move that I have seen in years so I took it._"

"_I hope you're right_," the River Woman replied dubiously. Her first inspection of the Game seemed to confirm Hachiman's statement, although it would be months before she could know for sure. "_Still, I'm not sure how that serves to solve our current problem. The Jewel is here, now, and it will take the arms master years to produce any results_."

"_That is because you have become too focused on the Now_," admonished a well known and highly respected voice. Ryuujin and Emma-O shimmered into view beside the River Woman, bowed a greeting to Hachiman, then approached the game field to examine the situation. "_You have let the appearance of the Jewel fluster you. Step back from the Event and take a wider look at the flow_."

The River Woman bowed in graceful deference to her mentor and stepped back from the bank as he instructed. The added distance dimmed the overwhelming brilliance of the Jewel's arrival, allowing her to see the threads of consequence flowing from it.

"_It... really doesn't change much, does it? Not for a long time._"

"_Once again, Muchitsujo-rei has chosen an unfit handler for his artifact_," Emma-O remarked. "_It will take him some time to mold this man into the instrument he desires._"

"_That won't bother him_," Hachiman added. "_There is more than enough disturbance caused by the battles between the contenders for the Jewel. He really doesn't need an acknowledged Jewel Master._"

"_But he wants one_," Ryuujin said, pointing at an array of active points laid across the field. "_Look here, here and here. These are places where he is specifically molding his keeper."_

"_Hm. So what's the game? What is he really trying to accomplish?_"

Inari chose that moment to join the group. The coquettish courtesan guise that Inari wore when conspiring with Muchitsujo-rei melted away to the canny old man he chose to be before the cabal. He looked unusually tired and dicouraged as he bowed his greeting to the rest of them.

Hachiman bristled up and retorted, "_Well, look who's back from whoring for that.._."

"_Idiot_," Inari scoffed. "_My 'whoring' has finally given me Muchitsujo-rei's confidence. Do you want to know what he's really up to?_"

The cabal exchanged glances quickly, then returned their attention to Inari.

"_He intends to be Emperor of all the Realms. He is gathering royal regalia powerful enough to overshadow the Regalia of the Empire of the Living. He has, however ill-held, a Mirror and a Jewel. He needs only a Sword to begin his campaign to overthrow the Lady Amaterasu and her court, The Buddha and his bodhisattvas, the Youkai, the Living and the Dead_."

"_Could that even work?_" Hachiman asked. "_The artifacts of one Realm cannot touch the other Realms._"

"_He has a Mirror of the Buddha Realm, the Jewel partakes of the Youkai and the Kami through the priestess, so he will seek a Sword that touches both the Living and the Dead. Once he has the Sword, he will begin his challenge in earnest_."

"_A Sword that touches the Living and the Dead... Is there such a thing?_" Ryuujin asked.

"T_here are a couple of swords that might fit that description_," said Emma-O. "T_heir keepers are powerful youkai, so he will be hard-pressed to wrest them away_."

"E_ven so, these youkai should be warned_," the River Woman said.

"_Youkai. Do you truly think they would listen?_" Inari asked dubiously.

"_Not really_," the River Woman sighed, "_but I intend to try anyway_."

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_Author's Note:_

_Meh. Close enough. You have waited far too long already. Once again, I thought this would go much faster, since I had a large section already pre-written, but once again, i discovered that is no guarantee of an earlier release._

_I did find another fun book to inform my world. "Home Life in Tokyo" is a description of everyday life for the middle class in Tokyo circa 1910. Westernization was beginning, but every day life still had many aspects of pre-Meiji customs. The author was a native Japanese who went to school in England learn western ways for his family. He returned the favor by describing to his Western friends how life was conducted in Tokyo_


	64. Chapter 64 Bushi-sensei

Chapter 64 - Bushi-sensei

Profound silence saturated the air, as if the world held its breath while the arms master passed. He heard only the harsh crunching of gravel under his sandals, the hiss and huff of his breath as he walked, the soft thumping of his heart. His vision was veiled; he could make out only the obstacles in his path with clarity, all else seemed distant and intangible. He did not heed the people who passed him, no more did they heed him.

How long he walked with only the metronomic sound of his feet, his breath, and his heart, he could not say. Light and dark, hot and cold, wet and dry, all were of no consequence, he saw everything as a vision that swept past him without touching him.

On and on he walked through unchanging twilight until the time came that he heard water rushing beside him, noticed his breath come harder and his legs ache as he climbed a hill, felt the soft breeze that wafted around him and saw the day brighten around him to a brilliant sunlit afternoon.

He came to himself with a start and stopped to look in amazement at the small village in front of him. He had traveled the land extensively, but he had never seen this village before, nor beheld the valley that housed it, nor the mountains that surrounded it. Lifelong training seized him, and he turned slowly around, carefully noting the lay of the land, the look of the village, seeking out any sign of fortifications or defenses. He saw only a strategically placed watch tower and an unprotected manor house. Looking back, he saw his path disappear into a tree-lined gorge where the valley's river took its plunge out of the mountains and down to the plains. He could see the first trees plainly, but the path beyond quickly faded into a shadowy, impenetrable fog. Queer - he should have been able to see farther... He walked back for a closer look; the fog grew even more impenetrable and a sense of dread washed through him.

Something wanted him here. He strongly suspected if he dared the fog, he would soon find himself right back here in this valley. How... interesting.

He turned back to the village and walked down the main street, examining the buildings and people closely, all the while knowing that he, himself, was being examined just as closely. In a village this intimate and isolated, any change was a novelty worthy of comment. In due time, a bent, old, one-eyed miko met him in the square, flanked by three of the resident farmers. Other villagers gathered in small clusters around them, hanging back just far enough to not get involved with the meeting, but close enough that they might overhear the discussion.

He bowed to the miko, then waited for her to speak.

She bowed back, then said, "Greeting to you, traveler. I am Kaede, the headwoman of this village. You have the air of a man seeking something. May I offer my assistance?"

He bowed again, saying, "I am seeking my reason for being here."

Kaede's eyebrows rose in surprise. "What do you mean?"

The traveler paused and thought a moment. "I... really don't know. I walked through a long dream and woke to find myself in this strange place. When I tried to retrace my steps, a sense of great dread overcame me, but when I walked into this village, I felt the sense of some task waiting for me."

"That is indeed curious. What is your name?" Kaede asked.

The arms master opened his mouth to answer, and his name slipped away. "I.. I don't remember."

"Where do you come from?" Kaede continued.

Once again, the memories of his past life among the Morii slipped away, the faces of his employers and his students, the passages of the castle, the skyline of the grounds, all faded away into a distant haze, just out of his reach. "Forgive me, but I can't recall. It was there just a moment ago, but now I cannot remember. How can that be?"

Kaede considered him for a moment, then said, "Perhaps you had best come with me to talk to Kagome. She may be able to make some sense of this."

"I would appreciate whatever help you can provide. Who is this Kagome, if I may ask?"

"She is the other miko in the village. She is quite gifted in understanding spirits and spirit messages."

"Ah, is she indeed? I look forward to speaking with her."

Kaede turned and led him toward the manor house on the hill.

"Ah, pardon me, but shouldn't we be going to the shrine?" the arms master inquired.

"Perhaps, but that will be Kagome's decision. First, we have to find her, and today she is at home brewing potions."

"I see," he replied, although in truth, he did not.

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InuYasha stood in the meadow in front of his house surveying his motley line of volunteers for the village militia and tried to decide what to do first. He had everything from half-grown boys looking for an exciting tussle, through hormone-hopped adolescents looking to establish their pecking order and impress the local girls, to gruff middle-aged men who just wanted to protect their village without the foolish shenanigans of the younger set. It had seemed like an excellent idea at first, he could use the backup in his swordless state, and he wanted to be able to leave the village for a few days to seek out the Jewel with the knowledge that they would at least be able to handle mundane challenges. Now, though, he wasn't so sure. Just how did you train a group to fight?

He decided to start with lining everyone up and let them tackle him one at a time. He figured it would burn off some of the younger set's energy and let him evaluate what each man knew individually. He hoped it would also serve as a confidence builder. Just to start off on the right foot, he put Tsuchiya at the head of the line, since they had been playing this game for weeks.

This many people in a group naturally made Tsuchiya excited and silly. He made a great show of winding himself up for his assault, then flung himself pell-mell at his father without a thought of what he was really going to do when he arrived.

InuYasha snatched Tsuchiya up by the back of his shirt and dangled him in front of his face. "Seriously?" he asked. "What was that?"

"Ummmm…"

"I thought so. Get to the back of the line and think about it next time."

Deflated, Tsuchiya went to the back of the line. Tsuchiya's pal, Hari, was the next one up. He froze for a moment then swallowed hard and charged InuYasha, finishing with a leap intended to knock him down. InuYasha rocked back a little when he caught the boy, then swooped him around and put him down on his feet. "Nice try. That would work better with someone more your own size."

After Tsuchiya's group came a cluster of cocky teenagers who egged each other on and made mocking comments as each landed on his back or butt after his assault.

Kaede and the traveler topped the stairs about halfway through the teenagers' run. The man stopped to watch, caught first by InuYasha's unusual appearance, then the nature of the drill. His eyes narrowed speculatively as he analyzed the action. _Hmmm… Moves like a street fighter… Wide open there - look at that stance. Be flat on his back if he met a trained opponent…_ A moment later he joined the line.

By the time he cycled to the head of the line, it had established its rhythm. Each volunteer paused for a short moment after his predecessor had completed his assault, then launched into his own attempt at InuYasha. InuYasha deflected or dumped each one, then set himself briefly for the next man while the previous one rolled to his feet and returned to the back of the line.

InuYasha barely had time to register that he had never seen this man before. A moment later, as he reached out to shove the man aside, he was caught by the wrist, then he found himself flying in a whirling arc and landing flat on his back with the man's foot on his throat and his arm nearly pulled out of its socket. He blinked up into the sun and tried to wrench his arm back. The man twisted it painfully for a moment to establish he had control, then released him.

InuYasha rolled quickly to his feet and turned to confront the traveler. "Who the Hell are you and where did you come from?" he demanded.

The sharp focus in the man's face faded to bewilderment as he reached out again for the fading memories. "I… Forgive me, but… I don't know. It was there a moment ago, and now it's gone."

"How did you get here?" InuYasha asked pointedly.

"I remember walking out of that pass, but before that, I do not know."

"Right. Until we figure this out, you're staying with me. And don't think you can pull any of those tricks on me again. I wasn't expecting it."

"Obviously," the traveler said drily. "No one in his right mind lets his body be read that easily in a real fight." Once again, he was sharp and focused, a man in his element.

"Er, right. Of course not," InuYasha replied. He rifled through his memory, trying to think what the man was seeing that was so easy to read.

"Shall we try that again, now that you are expecting it?" The traveler cocked an expectant eyebrow at InuYasha and waited quietly for his response.

"Sure. Why not?" InuYasha set himself in his fighting stance, ready for the attack. This time the man slipped easily under his reaching arms, grabbed his shoulder and hooked his legs out from under him. InuYasha landed hard on his back and found himself once again blinking up into the sun while he tried to pull some air back into his lungs.

The shadow of the man's head obscured the sun briefly as he looked down at InuYasha. "Young man, has anyone ever taught you anything about fighting?" he asked.

"Wh.. what?" Outrage started to bubble in the back of InuYasha's head despite the undeniable fact the he was the one on the ground. "I've been fighting since before you were born."

"Have you indeed? I marvel that you are still alive," the man said drily.

"Nice. I am alive, so obviously I'm doing something right."

"Hm. Perhaps. Well, on your feet. Let's have a look at you."

Flustered, InuYasha rolled back to his feet.

"Fighting stance," the traveler ordered. InuYasha complied.

"Eh, what's this?" He pushed hard on InuYasha's shoulder, making him rock back on his heels. "No. Foot back - like this." He kicked InuYasha's right foot back a foot. "Makes you stable."

He pushed again on InuYasha's shoulder, demonstrating the increase in stability. "Eh?"

"Right."

"Now, why do you face me full like that?" He shot out a pair of quick strikes to InuYasha's belly and face. "I hit you here, I hit you here, why make it easy? Turn your body sideways, one arm in front, like this." He demonstrated the posture, which InuYasha copied. He then shot a couple more blows at InuYasha, which InuYasha deflected easily. "You see? Not so easy."

The man changed his stance and said, "Now, you tackle me. Show me what you know."

InuYasha stepped forward and aimed a punch at him. Once again, the man grabbed his wrist and he found himself flying through the air to land heavily on his back.

A moment later, the man was peering down at him again from on high. "We'll talk about your attack later. First we must talk about your fall. If you fall like that, you will lose."

"And what the Hell am I supposed to do about that? I'm falling!" InuYasha snarled.

"Psh. Up on your feet."

InuYasha returned to his feet.

"Now, knock me over."

InuYasha hesitated a moment. He really didn't want another flying lesson.

"Come on. I'll show you good falling."

"Right." InuYasha shoved him hard in the chest.

The man dropped backward in a curl then rolled over onto his feet and lunged back at Inuyasha, stopping with his hand an inch from his throat. "You see? A good fall puts you back in the fight."

"Yeah," Inuyasha replied, wishing someone had shown him this stuff back when he was a scared kid in the forest instead of now. "Where did you learn all this?"

"I…" The keen look faded into vagueness again as the traveler once more futilely searched his memory. "I don't know."

InuYasha frowned and jabbed a finger at his chest. "Now that's just a little too weird. I've seen your sort before, you know, people who seem normal then suddenly lose themselves and they're puppets, they're possessed. If you think I'm going to let you stick around because you have all this knowledge you think I can use, you're crazy. I've been getting along fine without it for hundreds of years, and I sure don't need some puppet who knows what you know suddenly going berserk on me."

"I assure you, I have no intention…"

"I know that. The puppets didn't either. But the puppetmaster, that's another story. So, until we know who's controlling you and why, I can't allow you to stay."

"And who are you, that you can decide this?"

"I'm in charge of security here."

"Ah." His deadpan expression filled in the blanks on his actual opinion of the wisdom of that assignment.

InuYasha bristled up at the unspoken criticism. "Look. I've been doing this job for about ten years and since I've been here, we've had no problems with brigands, youkai or even the local tax collector. If you have…"

"Ah, so this where you wandered off to." Kaede had returned, accompanied by a very pregnant young woman in miko's clothes and a little girl with golden eyes and dog's ears. "Kagome, this is the man who came up the pass today. He can't remember who he is or where he came from. He believes he has some purpose to fulfill here."

"Good afternoon," the younger woman smiled.

"Good afternoon," he replied solemnly.

"I'd like to learn more about your circumstances. Shall we find somewhere quiet where we can talk?" Kagome suggested.

"By all means. I very much want to understand what is happening to me. Are… are you sure you can…?" His eyes slid down to her very round belly.

"Yes, I know it's unusual, but my spiritual powers are all intact," she assured him. "I think perhaps the shrine would be best." She led the way to the stairs. Kaede and the little girl accompanied him as he followed.

"All right, that's it for today," InuYasha said behind them. The class dispersed and InuYasha joined the shrine-bound party at the bottom of the stairs.

"You're coming, too?" Kagome asked with surprise as he joined them. "Why?"

"I don't like it. He's too much like Kohaku," InuYasha replied, glowering at the man. "One moment he's sharp as a sword-edge, the next he's gone all vague and mindless. I think he's possessed."

"Well, if he is, I should be able to handle it."

"Pfft!"

Kagome huffed an exasperated sigh, then said, "Fine. Come along then."

Once at the shrine, Kagome queried the man on what he did remember, what he felt when he tried to retrieve his missing memories and why he felt he had a purpose to fulfill here. He answered to the best of his ability, although even he knew his answers were not satisfactory.

"You were with the fighting class when I first came out. What were you doing there?" Kagome asked.

"I was demonstrating the correct way to fall in a fight."

"Do you know much about that?"

He snorted. "It's a basic fighting skill, one of the first things anyone learns. Of course I know it."

"Did you feel impelled to teach it?"

"I find it exasperating when I see someone who should know better bungling it so badly."

"I did not…!" InuYasha flared.

Kagome held up a hand to quiet him, then asked again. "Did you feel impelled to teach?"

"Er, well, I suppose I did. It felt right when I did it."

"So perhaps teaching is your purpose here."

"It certainly wouldn't hurt some people to learn what I know," he said tartly.

InuYasha growled and muttered under his breath. Kagome gave him a quelling look.

"You were looking for a way to leave for a few weeks without leaving the village defenseless," she reminded him. "This man could be the answer to your problem."

"It's way too convenient," he replied. "And then there's that bit where he fades out when you ask him about his past. That's really fishy, if you ask me."

"Fair enough," Kagome replied, "but it's not like I can look into his mind."

"I can do that, Mama," the little girl interjected. She had been so quiet to this point that people had forgotten she was there. The traveler turned to look at her, then found himself locked in her steady gaze. It felt like she was browsing through him like he was a wall of scrolls, selecting this and that, unrolling them to read portions of what was written, then moving on. Memories surged to life and he reached after them, then felt them slip through his grasp, slippery as eels. A moment later he was released; the girl looked at InuYasha and said, "He's all himself, Papa. Nothing else is in there."

"What do you know about possession?"

"Michi-chan and that pigman - when I looked in them that night in the forest, something else was in them. They were shoved off in a corner while that, umm, you know, while It controlled them. I don't see that in him."

"Then why doesn't he know his name or where he comes from? There's something very wrong with this guy, and until I know what it is…."

The world turned inward again as the girl returned her gaze to him. This time, the search was direct and thorough. A torrent of memories flooded by faster than he could comprehend, some vivid and others seen through a haze. She released him, then looked at him with her head cocked to one side, thinking. Finally, she said, "There's screens inside him. He can't reach those memories."

"Can you?"

"I… I think I'll hurt him if I try."

"That's not good enough."

"But…"

"Look, those could ordinary memories, or they could be orders to kill us all. We don't know. I can't accept that."

"I could do an exorcism, just on general principals," Kagome mused.

"Or, I could just escort him out," InuYasha retorted. "Come on, we're leaving now." He grabbed the traveler's arm and started marching him toward the path out of the valley.

"I really don't think that's going to work," the traveler protested mildly.

"Are you saying you can stop me?" InuYasha snarled.

"No, no, I won't even try. All the same, we are going to end up right back here." He was quite sure of it.

"Yeah, right. We'll just see about that."

It was just as the man predicted. InuYasha tried every trail out of the valley and even tried borrowing Kirara for a direct flight out, but each time he approached the boundaries of his little realm, he found himself in a disorienting fog that didn't lift until he found himself once more entering the valley.

"Well isn't that just fucking great. It looks like I'm stuck with you."

"I won't impose. As long as I remain here, there's nothing stopping me from settling quietly anywhere…"

"Oh, no, you're not leaving my sight until I know what's going on with you."

The traveler looked at InuYasha's ferocious glare and bowed slightly. "Then I am at your service." After a moment, he asked, "Er, may I ask whom I am serving?"

"I'm called InuYasha."

"As in 'InuYasha, The Demon Lord of the Blessed Valley?' " the traveler asked with a skeptical look.

"One of these days, I'm going to find the asshole that's making up all those fucking stories and I'm going to knock his teeth out," InuYasha growled. "I'm not a lord, and there's nothing blessed about this valley or the people in it."

"Well, at least you're not suffering from delusions of grandeur," the traveler remarked dryly.

"Thanks. I think."

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Kagome welcomed her new servant although she was sorely pressed to find a place to house him. After watching InuYasha shuffle cushions and screens and chests back and forth under her direction trying to carve out a corner for him, he said, "It's still very warm at this time of year. I would be perfectly comfortable on the porch for now."

She blushed and stammered, "Oh, no, I can't allow that. It's not at all the proper way to house someone. Even the dog is inside."

"I insist. The breeze out there is delightful."

"Oh, but…"

"I am in your service now, my lady. The porch is perfectly appropriate."

She looked at him in an agony of mortification, while InuYasha said, "Right, the porch it is."

Outvoted, she yielded and marched out onto the porch with her jaw set, inspecting it with a critical eye. "At the very least, we are going to put up screens." By the time she was done, he had screens, a mat, a cushion and a small chest, and she was checking with the neighbors to see who had a spare futon.

The children were, of course, highly interested in the novelty of having a servant. Tsuchiya and Nariko pumped Toushi for all the details of the meeting at the shrine, then all of them peered avidly out the front door as their parents settled "the new guy" into his makeshift room.

"What's he mean he's in Mama's service?" Tsuchiya whispered to Toushi.

"I dunno. Nobody said anything like that at the shrine," Toushi whispered back.

"Did he really throw Papa on his back?" Nariko asked skeptically. "He doesn't look that strong."

"Yeah, three times," Tsuchiya replied.

"Papa let him do it." Toushi declared.

"I don't think so," Tsuchiya returned. "He just kind of whirled around and the next thing ya know Papa flipped around and landed on his back. It was kinda cool."

"Tsuchiya!" Toushi hissed with an affronted look at Tsuchiya's disloyalty.

"Well, it was," Tsuchiya insisted. "I wanna know how to do that."

"Do you, now?" The new guy said, looking back at the door from his place on his cushion.

The children all gasped and ducked back into the house, hearts thumping.

"Now, now, I don't bite. Come on out and let me see you," he called after them.

The children exchanged nervous glances then slowly sidled out of the door until they stood in a little row in front of him.

"So there's the three of you." he said.

"Four," Toushi corrected. "Papa's watching Taiba to keep him outa trouble until Mama gets back."

"Does he get into a lot of trouble?" the man asked.

They all nodded vigorously. "He takes apart everything if you don't stop him," Nariko said.

"I see. So, what are you called?" he asked.

"I'm Tsuchiya, that's Toushi, and that's Nariko," Tsuchiya replied, pointing to each of his sisters in turn.

"So, you want to learn what I know," the new guy said.

Tsuchiya grinned and nodded eagerly; the girls shrugged and looked at the floor.

"I expect we can arrange that if your parents agree," the man replied.

"Cool, Mr… er, what should I call you?" Tsuchiya asked.

"Hmm. Bushi-sensei will have to do, since I can't seem to remember my name," he replied.

"What's going on out here?" InuYasha appeared in the doorway, holding a very disgruntled Taiba firmly by the suspenders of his overalls.

The glowering Taiba chanted, "No, no, no, no. no…" continually while Bushi-sensi replied, "We were just getting acquainted."

"Papa, he says he can teach us that cool throw!" Tsuchiya exclaimed. "Can we do it? Please?"

"Not until we know who he is, where he comes from, and why he doesn't remember any of it," InuYasha said shortly. "And you," he said pointing at Bushi-sensei, "You don't go near my family until then, is that clear?"

"Entirely, InuYasha-sama. Run along, now," he said to the children, "We will talk later, when your father's questions have been answered."

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Tsuchiya, however, wanted his lessons now. Every time the opportunity arose, he made a pitch for the lessons, providing an example from the day's occurrences where he could have used the knowledge.

InuYasha remained adamantly opposed. "No. It would just take him a moment to kill you if he goes off, and I won't be able to do anything about it. Now, will you give it a rest?"

"There is one point you have perhaps failed to consider, InuYasha-sama," Bushi-sensei remarked. "The more you learn of what I know, the less harm I can do to you or to anyone around here."

"Yeah, that's all well and good, but first I have to learn enough to stop you. That won't happen overnight, and in the meantime, you get us close enough to do your damage. I'm not falling for that one."

"As you say, InuYasha-sama."

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Hachiman was not pleased.

"_Have you no control whatever over your marks?_" he snarled at the River Woman. "_I have provided them the finest master in the realm, and I see him sitting idle. What have you done?_"

"_I have done nothing._"

"_Obviously. Why did you not take care of this?_"

"_The father will not permit him close to anyone while his memory is blocked, and I am not the one who can lift the blocks._" The River Woman replied quietly.

"_The blocks are immaterial. He has all the faculties he needs,_" Hachiman replied dismissively.

"_The father has strong memories of dealing with a possessed boy who also could not touch his memories and who would kill without warning when his possessor seized control. He is cautious of such people,_" the River Woman explained.

"_He chose an ill time to learn caution,_" Hachiman grumbled.

"_Perhaps if Hachiman-sama lifted the blocks…_"

Hachiman grunted noncommittally while he studied InuYasha. "_He will find the sudden return of the master's memories suspiciously convenient by now. Stubborn, this one. Hard to move him once his mind is set…._"

"_The mother can influence him_," the River Woman observed. "_Perhaps if you approached her…_"

"_She's already influencing him quite enough, thank you,_" Hachiman snapped.

The River Woman paused a moment. "_How?_"

"_She is near her time, and it is making him ridiculously overprotective._"

"_Nevertheless, she is more sensitive to spiritual influences and she has been performing divination ceremonies seeking our guidance in this matter. She is the most reasonable messenger._"

"_Most of the time, yes, but right now he will dismiss anything she tells him,_" Hachiman remarked. "_I will have to speak to him, myself_."

Communication across the Realms was a difficult undertaking. Even Hachiman, who was direct to the point of bluntness, was forced to communicate via metaphors within dreams. Unlike Inari, it did not come naturally to him.

Hachiman entered the Living Realm late at night as a spectral projection, then sought InuYasha's resting place. He found InuYasha dozing lightly at Bushi-sensei's makeshift doorway on the porch, making sure Bushi-sensei remained barred from doing any mischief. He touched InuYasha, deepening his sleep, then he stepped into his dreams.

He found InuYasha's mind racing through an array of anxious scenarios that wove his past to his present. Bushi-sensei's gray hair became black and his wrinkled face became smooth and freckled; his amiable eyes became terrifyingly blank. A moment later, he held Toushi by her braid while a blade slashed across her throat and blood gushed everywhere. The blood rose around him until he was swimming, desperately trying to keep his head up, while things floated past him in the roiling currents: legs, entrails, Tuchiya's head, Nariko's glasses, Kagome's hand still wearing its ring… In the darkness, he heard a malevolent chuckling, then spider's legs appeared out of the shadows, each leg holding a thread that reached to Bushi-sensei, making him twitch and dance.

Hachiman stepped into the dream and replaced the spider's legs with his hands. Bushi-sensei dropped a sword and walked away from a line of bewildered warriors holding practice weapons. Fog descended around him while the strings made him walk and walk and walk. He awoke in a sunlit valley as the strings holding him dissolved.

Children clustered around him and he taught them fighting skills. Gigantic brigands on horses swept down upon them, howling and brandishing swords and spears, and the now grown children fought them off with farm tools.

Children clustered around him again, but this time they were snatched away by their parents and masters and put to work in the fields and at their trades. Brigands rode into their village and sliced down the men then sailed away on a bloody sea, carrying with them the wives and sisters of the slain, while a dark force laughed gleefully in the distance. The laughter grew louder and louder until it boomed overhead. _"Too late now!"_ a voice crowed from the sky. "_Too late to fight! You had your chance, but now you're mine!"_

Bloody rain fell from the sky, then bits of flesh, entrails, and broken bodies which mounded up over InuYasha faster than he could climb over them. Soon he was buried in stinking coprses while the pressure grew and darkness fell and the laughter grew fainter through the barrier of corpses. "_Too late, you fool, too late! You should have fought when you could…_"

"No!" InuYasha started awake with his heart pounding. He caught the faintest glimpse of a stern man in armor that vanished in a blink. A flush of sweat washed over him, leaving him shivering in the night air. He shot a quick glance into Bushi-sensei's quarters to assure himself he was still there. Bushi-sensei was sprawled on his futon, snoring lightly. Moonlight slipped through a gap in the screen on his sleeping face, making him appear to glow.

"Heh. So the old man is a god-sent, is he?" InuYasha snorted. "Why am I having so much trouble believing it, then? A little too convenient, if you ask me."

In the kami-Realm, Hachiman gnashed his teeth and growled, "_What is it going to take to get through to him? I've half a mind to remove him_."

"_Let me send in his woman_," the River Woman murmured. "_She can persuade him._"

InuYasha heard rustling in the house, then Kagome came through the door.

"What are you doing…?" InuYasha demanded.

"I heard someone gasp, then say 'No!' It sounded like you…"

"Just a dream," InuYasha said shortly.

"Want to tell me about it?" she asked, sitting down beside him on the porch.

"Tsch. Dreams are just dreams."

"Humor me on this," Kagome said patiently. "We've had a visitor from the Spirit Realm; I can feel the residual reiki. He or she may have given you a message."

"He. I caught a glimpse of a big man in armor." InuYasha then related the dream: how it had started as his nightly eruption of anxiety with Bushi-sensei morphing into Kohaku and going berserk while Naraku laughed in the distance, then how it changed into showing a puppeteer who pulled Bushi-sensei from his job training warriors on a great long trip to this small village to teach them his skills. Those who learned his skill prospered, while those who were pushed away perished.

"Wow. That's about as direct as it gets. Bushi-sensei's task here is to teach, and ours is to learn whatever he has to offer."

"Doesn't this seem too convenient to you? We're two little people that have a little problem and the kami jump in and involve themselves with us. Us. It's not like we're big players in anything. We're just a couple of people living in a backwater town. Seriously, what the hell?"

"Are you afraid of Bushi-sensei?" Kagome asked. "Do you think he can hurt you?"

"No. Not really. He doesn't have a trace of magic, and there's no way he can really hurt me without it."

"So what's the problem? If you're his first student, you can learn what you need to know to protect everyone else while he teaches them. Just in case, you know. I really don't think he's going to go Kohaku on us, though."

"Why not?"

"You really don't give Toushi enough credit. She sees a lot more than you think she does. She knows what possession looks like. She saw it several times on that night in the forest. If she says he's not possessed, he's not possessed."

"Kagome, she's only seven."

"That doesn't make her automatically wrong. Look, if it makes you feel better, I'll perform another exorcism on him tomorrow morning. She can help. It will be good training for her."

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"This is a rather abrupt change of sentiment," Bushi-sensei remarked when InuYasha informed him that after his next exorcism, he was to consider himself on the job as martial arts instructor for the village. "Did something happen?"

"Let's just say we had a little visit from a god last night. I still don't think this is totally square, so there are some conditions. Anything you teach, you teach me first. And you don't touch anyone but me until I give the word."

"Very well. I can work with that."

The first lesson began the next day shortly after sunrise in the meadow facing InuYasha's house. InuYasha took his place beside Bushi-sensei as his demonstration partner. All other interested parties ranged themselves in rows facing Bushi-sensei to watch and practice. Everyone soon learned that Bushi-sensei was strict and demanding, and that any lapse in attention or resolution had immediate consequences.

Much to everyone's disappointment, Bushi-sensei started with falling. He spent the entire morning on falling. There wasn't anything profound about it. You stood up on your knees and flopped forward onto your forearms. Over and over and over… It was truly amazing how tiring it was after the first twenty rounds. Meanwhile, he walked up and down the rows, critiquing form. "Turn your head. You do not look down. You want to break your nose?" - "Arms closer together, like so." - "What is this? You box your own ear. You like hitting yourself? Arms straight. Wider." - "No, you go too far down. Your arms are your cushion. Let them break the fall and protect your head." - "No, no, no, not hands! Arms! All the way to your elbow. You will break your wrist on a long fall." - "You. You think you're bored, eh? You think you can do more, eh? Stand up. All the way. Now, jump up as high as you can and show me a good front fall."

He was talking to Tsuchiya. Constant repetition bored Tsuchiya, and he soon started improvising things when it confronted him. Now he was well and truly caught.

"Uh."

"Well?"

Talking to Bushi-sensei was a lot like talking to Aunt Sakura. "Yes, Sensei." Tsuchiya gathered himself up and jumped. On the way down, he tried to remember exactly what he was supposed to do for a good front fall. He panicked when the earth rushed up into his face and thrust his hands out to save himself. Pain flashed through him and his vision dimmed into a flurry of sparkles, then cleared. He found himself back on the ground, in a crumpled heap while his left arm throbbed.

"Let me see that arm, boy," Bushi-sensei said brusquely. He took Tsuichiya's arm and drew it out straight along the ground, then felt along its length. Tsuchiya gasped when he passed over a funny lump. "Broken, of course." He leaned over to look in Tsuchiya's face. "Do you know how high you jumped?" he asked shakily.

Tsuchiya thought a moment, then shook his head.

"You cleared the peak of your roof. I did not know you could do that and I must apologize for pushing you farther than you can go. It's going to take weeks for that to heal."

"Actually, it will take about three days, if he behaves himself," InuYasha said. "You go in and have your mother make sure that arm is straight," he told Tsuchiya, then he turned angry eyes on Bushi-sensei. "I thought I told you…"

Bushi-sensei bowed low and said, "A failure through ignorance is still a failure. I humbly beg your pardon, InuYasha-sama. I honestly had no idea the boy could jump so high. Normally, when I do that challenge on a cocky boy, he gets a bloody nose at worst. Before I continue, I must know what you can do, so I might tailor my lessons to your capabilities."

"You remember doing this before?" InuYasha asked.

"Yes, many times."

"Where? When?"

Bushi-sensei's focus faded as he groped for the memories.

"Damn it!" InuYasha growled. "You aren't making this easy."

"For the little that it is worth, I am as frustrated as you are."

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The next morning, Bushi-sensei started training with a short lecture.

"Yesterday, you saw an unfortunate demonstration of the importance of good falling. Take it to heart. By the time we are done, you will be able to fall forward, backward and sideways without hurting yourselves. Until you know this, there is no point in learning more, so practice diligently.

Today, we will start with ten good front falls from kneeling, then I will show you how to do it from standing. Begin."

After standing front falls, there were jumping front falls, then jumping front falls with a roll to the side. Then came back falls and side falls, each fall starting from a low stable position and ending with jumping falls. When the students began to demonstrate competence, he tested them by randomly tripping them or pushing them from behind.

As "resident warrior", InuYasha was tapped for special lessons in the afternoon. Bushi-sensei told him, "So, you tell me you can fight. Show me what you know."

InuYasha was more than ready to comply. The lessons he had been receiving so far were insulting; even if they were appropriate for the rest of the class. He wound up and aimed a punch at Bushi-sensei; Bushi-sensei tapped his arm away and slipped lightly to the side. InuYasha aimed another punch, and Bushi-sensei once again slipped out of reach. Punch after punch after punch and always Bushi-sensei was just to the side of his fist, directing his arm away. Frustrated, InuYasha lunged at Bush-sensei, claws swiping out ferociously, and found himself once more looping through the air to land on his back. This time, at least, he know how to take the fall.

"What the Hell?" he panted. "You wore me out and you're not even winded."

"No, you wore you out. I merely stayed out of the way. It's much easier to take on a tired enemy."

InuYasha rolled back to his feet, grumbling, "I usually use a sword, you know. This wouldn't have happened if I had the sword."

"I have not seen this sword."

"It's with a swordsmith getting repaired."

"Ah." Bushi-senseit kept his tone neutral, but there was no doubting his opinion of why the sword was with a smith.

InuYasha ground his teeth and growled, "Look, it's a magic sword, and it caught a blast of reiki that completely scrambled its magic."

"This should show you that it is not wise to trust your entire fortune to a sword, even a magic sword. You do not have that sword now. You may lose a sword in the middle of a battle at any time, but it is hard to lose a trained body. With a trained body, you may survive long enough to get the sword back. Besides, if you cannot handle your body without a sword, you are not going to be able to handle your body and a sword together.

"You have much to learn, and much to unlearn. The way you fight now, you simply hand your enemy the keys to your defeat. You must learn to mask your intentions. You must learn to read your opponent."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you going to get on with showing me this stuff or are you just going to talk about it all day?"

"Yes. Watch me and tell me what I'm going to do."

InuYasha watched Bushi-sensei intently but only could barely manage to see the punches coming just before they struck.

"I am not seeing anything!" he yelled after the tenth blow.

"You are not looking correctly. Do not look at me, look through me. Watch again."

It wasn't natural, the impulse to focus exclusively on Bushi-sensei's fist was powerful, but after a couple of tries, InuYasha got the hang of it. "Looking through" Bushi-sensei had the effect of widening the scope of his vision; suddenly he could see the little twitches and shifts that announced an incoming attack. InuYasha was able to awkwardly dodge many of the blows, but he still could not always tell where they were coming from.

"Better. Much better. Now, you need to learn to watch what the feet do, how the weight shifts. You need power to strike a blow, and that demands a firm base to push against. Follow the line of that firm base from the feet through the legs and torso until you know what the arm will do."

Now it started becoming easier to anticipate the attacks. Bushi-sensei worked him several minutes longer, then called an end to the lesson. "That is enough for one day. You have much to absorb. Let us see what you remember tomorrow when we meet."

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As the days passed, Bushi-sensei became aware of a furtive little black-haired figure with golden eyes that appeared on the sidelines every time a lesson began. She wasn't the only spectator; there were other girls that came to watch, but they generally stood in a cluster, whispering among themselves and preening for the boys when they looked up. This one stood well away from the other girls, watching each move avidly for the duration of the lesson, then vanishing the instant it was over.

There was always one. It interested him that this time it was InuYasha-sama's precocious daughter, Toushi. She had never struck him as one who would be content as a farmer's wife.

One afternoon, Bushi-sensei heard a regular scuffling and grunting coming from behind the woodshed. He peered curiously around the corner and saw Toushi practicing falling drills with great intensity.

"Keep those arms at shoulder width with your elbows square," he suggested as she launched into a front fall.

She gasped and splatted down in a spectacularly bad fall, then scrambled to her feet, brilliantly blushing while she studiously inspected her feet. "Don't tell Papa!" she blurted.

"No?"

She shook her head furiously, still looking down at her feet.

"Many samurai women do practice the art, you know. And many samurai men value a wife who can guard his castle while he is gone."

She glanced up at him with an odd mix of hope and skepticism. "Really?"

"I've seen it often enough."

"Can you tell me about some of them?"

The fog descended in on him again as he sought the context that framed the snippets of memory, that tiny fierce lady from… or the hot-blooded daughter of… He held his breath and dug harder, locking onto the stubborn black eyes of the wife of… the wife of…

The fierce, hot-blooded, stubborn, golden eyes of InuYasha's daughter pierced through the fog to capture his attention. "This is stupid," she muttered as she drilled into him and blasted through the walls blocking off his memories. "Stories are the best part of learning." Then she was gone as quickly as she arrived, leaving him reeling with the flood of recovered memories.

He wasn't sure how long he was caught in the whirl of images, sounds and smells, but when he saw today again, he was sitting on the ground with Toushi hovering over him, watching him anxiously.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

"I… Yes, thank you, Toushi-san, I think I am."

"So can you tell about those ladies now?" she asked hopefully.

"You didn't look for yourself?" he asked in surprise.

"No, Mama doesn't like it when I do that. Besides, the stories are better when you tell them."

"That's very kind of you."

She smiled self-consciously for a moment, then resumed her pleading-puppy look.

"Ah, yes, give me a moment. There was one young hime I taught from the Takeda clan, her name was Aiko. She was a tiny girl, so I taught her naginata to give her some reach. She was traveling to her wedding when her entourage was attacked by bandits. The ladies' guard was killed so she took up his weapon and kept the bandits off her ladies in waiting until the rest of the men of the entourage chased the bandits away. I heard later that Aiko-hime insisted on teaching her ladies the way of the naginata so the men would not need to guard them if the castle was attacked."

"Mama shoots a magic bow, but that's 'cause she's a miko," Toushi remarked.

"Archery is another excellent fighting art for a woman. She doesn't need to be big and strong to be effective," Bushi-sensei said. "I've taught several women the essentials of archery, although I expect your mother could teach you as well."

Toushi wrinkled her nose in distaste, then said, "I'm as strong as any of the boys in the village. I can do anything they can do. And I'm tired of being told I can't do stuff just 'cause I'm a girl."

"So archery isn't enough for you."

"Why should it be? I can hold a sword as well as anybody."

"Persuading your father to let you train will be much easier if you are to learn the feminine fighting arts like archery," Bushi-sensei replied.

"Does Papa have to know?" Toushi pleaded.

Bushi-sensei summoned his self-control against the onslaught of those devastating golden eyes. He wondered how anyone could ever refuse her anything. "I am in your father's service and a poor servant I would be to teach you against his will. It would be best if you asked him yourself."

"Oh, but…"

"He will know anyway. He's at every training session so he can keep an eye on me."

"But he doesn't have to do that anymore. You have your memories back."

"Nevertheless. I will not teach you without his permission."

Toushi chewed on that for a moment, then asked, "Will you come with me?"

"Of course."

It didn't look promising when they caught up to InuYasha. He was fuming about something; that was obvious from the ill-tempered cast of his ears and the twitchiness of his hands.

"Perhaps this is not the best time," Bushi-sensei said softly to Toushi.

InuYasha's ears twitched. "The best time for what?" he demanded, turning to face them.

"Papa, can I train with Bushi-sensei?" Toushi blurted, anxious to get the encounter over with.

"What? What have you been filling her head with?" InuYasha demanded of Bushi-sensei.

"Nothing she hadn't already thought of herself. I found her practicing falls behind the woodshed," Bushi-sensei replied.

"What does a little girl like you need to know about fighting? Leave that to the men; it's no place for you," InuYasha told Toushi.

"Bushi-sensei says it's good for a girl to know how to fight. She might need to defend her family's castle when the men are called away to war."

"Toushi, do you see a castle? And just who is going to call me out to war? We are not vassals to anyone. I'll be here."

"You've been talking to Mama about going to look for some jewel," Toushi retorted. "That means you're leaving."

"Not for a long time, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere until I know the story behind who sent Bushi-sensei here, and since he can't remember any…"

"I fixed that," interrupted Toushi. "He remembers everything, now."

"I thought you said you couldn't do it," InuYasha said, frowning.

"I said I might hurt him if I tried."

"So what made you try it this time?"

"He couldn't remember a story I wanted to hear," Toushi said sheepishly.

"Right. A story." Gods preserve me from the mad judgement of children. "Well, right now it's my turn to hear the stories, so you just run along and help Mama while we talk."

InuYasha watched until Toushi was in the house, then he turned back to Bushi-sensei and asked "So, who sent you? Why are you here?"

"I don't know. I was leading a training session with the Morii castle retainers when I was seized with an overwhelming compulsion to leave. This compulsion led me on a long march to this valley. During that time, I saw the world around me as a distant dream, and it seemed as though the world could not see me pass. I returned to myself when I arrived here. You know the rest as well as I do."

"Great. We're right back where we started."

"As you say. I have no objection to remaining in your service as we have arranged. I seriously doubt my master will let me leave this valley, even though all of my faculties have returned."

"Hmph. I have objections. I have a lot of objections to a lot of things. I don't like the way you're influencing my children…"

"You mean your daughter? I will not teach her if that is what you wish, but it will not stop her. She is already sneaking away to do her practice unobserved. Would it not be better to have her participate in the lessons where I can ensure she learns the arts correctly? You, yourself, know that much of what I teach is small things. Put your foot so, and hold your arm thus. You can get very badly hurt if you do it incorrectly, and I would not want that to happen to her."

"Oh, and she can't get hurt learning it correctly then putting herself in the middle of a battle? That's bullshit and we both know it!"

"I did encounter some girls who were interested simply because it was forbidden. Once they were allowed in the lessons and discovered it was work, they lost interest. In the meantime, they at least learned how to fall safely, which is useful for everyone."

"Heh. You don't know Toushi very well if you think she'll give up because it's work."

"Do you honestly believe she will give up if she doesn't get your permission?"

InuYasha looked away with a distinctly sour look on his face. "No."

"Neither do I. So, how do you intend to manage her?"

InuYasha glared at Bushi-sensei with searing frustration but offered no comment.

Toushi chose this moment to burst out of the house and run to them. "Papa! Papa!" she called as she approached.

"Toushi, you know we're talking," InuYasha snapped. "Can't you…"

"Papa, Mama says the baby is coming," Toushi announced.

"Well, don't just stand there. Go fetch Kaede-baabaa." InuYasha ran a distracted hand through his hair, then told Bushi-sensei, "We'll talk later."

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He had to hand it to Emma-O, when the kami made a promise, he delivered. Even from the womb, he was aware of his past and his purpose. For months, he had curled into his ever-tightening world, listening to the groans and gurgles of his mother's body and the muffled voices of his future family, all the while dwelling on his probable fate.

The body he occupied buzzed with unrealized potential. He had never felt so vibrantly alive. He ached for the opportunity to try its limits, and welcomed the nearly unbearable pressure that was pushing him from his dark, airless prison into the world of light and space and boundless opportunities. Only, there was a problem. With each contraction, his world went blank and soundless, and he struggled to recover from the roaring silence and the dimming of his spark. It didn't seem right…

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"No! Hold it! Don't push, don't push! There's a problem with the cord!" Kaede held the arriving baby steady while Kagome gasped and sobbed through holding back the contraction. "Good, good, try to hold it there while I loosen the cord."

"Aaaugh, hurry, there's another one coming… Oh, Gods, oh, Buddha, oh…oh…oh..." Kagome gritted her teeth and panted lightly while she tried to hold back the rising tide of pain and compulsion. It was time to push, her body knew it and objected strenuously to her attempts to thwart it.

"Easy, hold on, I nearly have it… Oh, so close," Kaede said with dismay as the cord slipped out of her grasp. Despite Kagome's best effort, the baby surged forward and the cord tightened around him. "This isn't working. Let's just get him delivered, then I'll see what we can do."

"What?"

"Quickly, now. The sooner he comes, the better his chances of living."

Kagome squashed the surge of panic and pushed strenuously through the next contraction. It didn't go smoothly, the baby seemed to hang up part way. "Kaede," she gasped.

"Yes, I see it. I'm going to try to feel what's going on in there. Ah, his shoulder is hung up, let me… Ah! Here he comes…"

The next contraction sent him slithering into Kaede's hands. She deftly moved to untangle the baby from his cord, then turned him and thumped him sharply on the back. There was no reaction from the baby who hung limply from her hand, still and blue. "Come on," Kaede said as she rubbed his back briskly, then slapped him again, "all that youkai blood ought to be good for something. Breathe!"

There was the tiniest flicker of movement. Kaede turned the baby over and sucked on his mouth to clear his airway, then puffed a soft breath into him. He twitched again, then coughed feebly. Kaede continued to massage him briskly. He took in a hiccuping breath, then another. "That's right, you can do it." He coughed again, then resumed breathing raggedly while he looked groggily around.

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That was close. Much too close. He could almost see the shores of Death in the distance before he was snatched back to this hot, stuffy room. His mind still reeled between life and death, making it hard for him to take in the warm body of his mother and her gentle touch as she stroked him and cooed to him. A few minutes later, he was cleaned and wrapped soundly, then taken to his father for his approval.

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"Something happened," InuYasha said sharply. "How's Kagome?"

"Well, and resting," Kaede replied.

"And he's good?" InuYasha continued, indicating the baby in his arms.

"As far as I can tell. He got wrapped in the cord and strangled by it for a few minutes, but I managed to revive him. I won't say I wasn't worried. It's never good when that happens. You'll have to watch him closely for a few days to make sure he continues to do well."

"Can I see her?" InuYasha asked, looking into the house.

"Yes, go ahead," Kaede replied.

InuYasha slipped into the house and joined Kagome at the bed. He lay down beside her and placed their new son between them. For several long minutes, they lay contentedly together, watching their new son take in the world, then he said, "So what shall we call him?"

"I was kind of hoping you had a good name ready," Kagome replied ruefully.

"Not really," he admitted. "You nixed my last one, remember?"

"But that was a month ago," she objected.

"Well, you haven't exactly coughed up a new one either," he reminded her. "I'm not even sure why we're bothering. They all seem to acquire another name anyway."

"InuYasha!"

"What?"

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_Author's Note:_

_I have a confession to make. I've never really liked this kid's name. _

_slayer123bio suggested a baby-naming contest a while back and I decided we could all have some fun with that._

_So, here's the deal. Those who want to play give me a name and explain why you think this is the perfect name for this baby. The person with the winning entry gets my usual offer: your choice of one question answered or a minor teaser from later in the story._

_The contest will run until May 20, 2013._

_Let's have some fun._


	65. Chapter 65 A Sword Possessed

Chapter 65 - A Sword Possessed

Bushi-sensei often wondered what he was doing here, of all places. It wasn't that he wasn't welcomed; his patrons had arranged to have a small house built for him opposite their own on the edge of the meadow facing the forest. Kagome-sama had ensured he had access to what he needed from her household's privileges. The villagers could not have been more cordial, but still...

He was accustomed to a world of battle-hardened warriors, intense young students and stoic warlords. In that world, everyone understood his game and how it was played. Here, there was a morass of conflicting needs and priorities. The farmers and artisans understood they may need to defend their lives and homes, but this really wasn't their main calling in life, and the long years of security under InuYasha's watch had made them even more complacent. Their children reflected these conflicted priorities by choosing the activities they would throw themselves into and those that they resisted. Over time, many of them returned to their trades as they decided that what he was teaching didn't suit them.

Then there was the magic - his past world had been firmly grounded in hard realities. There, everyone knew that there was no substitute for hard training and continuous practice. Not that anyone ever failed to make their offerings to Hachiman or Bishamon; everyone also knew all too well that no amount of training would ultimately overcome the raw tosses of luck that took place in the chaos of battle. Training and superstition reigned, but those who actually trusted in their charms and spells were usually the first to fall.

Here, though, magic was woven into the very fiber of his new life. His lord was patently of magical descent, there were youkai like the young kitsune Shippo living among them, and the skills exhibited by Kagome, Miroku and Sango testified to the veracity of the tales told about them. He had no magic, and the people he was teaching were saturated with it, so why him? The question provoked much thought in the dark hours of the night.

Evidently, the same question was haunting his master. Despite the progress he was making in learning the basics skills, he was as prickly as ever, and the references to his still-absent sword remained a constant theme in his commentary.

As Bushi-sensei completed this morning's training session, he felt the eyes that watched him as a tangible force battering on his equanimity. InuYasha had missed the beginning of the session. He had been investigating an over-night eruption of youki in the forest and had just returned. Since it wouldn't do to break the discipline of a training session for something outside the field, he ignored it until training was complete and the students were putting away the equipment. He turned to see InuYasha leaning against the corner of his house with his arms folded across his chest, glowering at him. Judging by the gouges on his face and arms and the shredding of his kimono sleeves, the fight had been challenging.

Discipline and protocol must not be cast aside, so he made sure all the training props were in their racks and the students dismissed before he approached his patron. He bowed slightly, then said, "You want a word, InuYasha-sama?"

Inuyasha's ear twitched. "-sama" was it? And yet the old man's bow was slight enough to remark he was a master in his own right.

"You know what you're teaching is not the real answer here, don't you?" he asked. "Falling, dodging, hitting, what does it get you, really? None of that solves the problem of magic. I don't care how fast you can get back on your feet, if you can't throw back the magic, you're just youkai-chow. What do you have that's the least bit useful in a magical firefight?"

Bushi-sensei's night-time meditations had given him an answer; only time would show if it was accurate, or sufficient. "InuYasha-sama, I am the most ordinary of men. I am the first to admit there is nothing special about me. Middling height, middling weight, middling strength, even middling speed. But I have put in a lifetime of study in all the ways a body might attack effectively or defend itself successfully. And I practice those ways continually. Every day, every hour, there is some bit of practice I do. I practice until there is no mind between my need and my action. No matter what you throw at me, I already know, in my bones, what I must do to react. Even the most powerful magician will lose if he dithers in the face of an enemy. That is something I can fix."

InuYasha's ear twitched again; this time, the acknowledgement of a point taken. Bushi-sensei's star pupil would continue to develop his skills., hopefully with less commentary.

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The youkai master smith, Toto-sai, studied Tetsusaiga as it lay sullenly glowing in its cradle near his forge. He had been trying for months to work out the load of reiki that was marring the sword, but every time he heated the sword, the reiki stubbornly hid in the sword's core, then surged back out with renewed fury after the sword cooled. It had reached the point that he could scarcely touch the sword without receiving a bone-tingling jolt of reiki up his arm.

Perhaps he could do the work by just hammering without heating. He picked up his hammer and laid the sword onto the anvil and gave it a sharp blow mid-blade. The ring of the hammer on the steel became a howl of anguish, then Toto-sai saw a small dark-haired girl with dog's ears in an elegant persimmon-orange kimono spring from the sword and round on him, screeching, "Stop it! Stop it! You're making my head hurt! Why can't you just leave me alone?! You boys are all alike! I hate you!" She made a pushing gesture in his direction and a wave of reiki blew through him, leaving him blasted against the wall of his cave unable to move.

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Whatever his personal misgivings about why he was there and what he was really accomplishing, Bushi-sensei's presence had altered the daily patterns of village life. Every day, after the morning chores were done, all the interested men and boys assembled in the meadow fronting InuYasha's house to attend fighting practice. Shortly thereafter, several of the village girls of a certain age would slip away from their chores to settle under the shade of a large maple tree to watch and flirt. Miroku's daughters, especially Hisui and Shinju, were prominent among them. Just as predictably, Miroku would appear sometime during the lesson and chase them back down the hill to their work.

After this day's training, as usual, InuYasha chatted briefly with Miroku, who always had the latest gossip and rumors.

"Hey, anything up, or are you just…?" he nodded in the direction of the girls.

Miroku scowled and grumbled, "What is it with those girls anyway? I think they've batted their eyes at every boy in the village. And yesterday I caught that lout Koji pawing Hisui behind the stable. I gave him the bum's rush and Hisui acted like I'd ruined her life. What do you think's making them so damned obsessed with boys?"

"You're joking, right?" InuYasha asked drily.

"What!?" Miroku cried. "Their mother certainly never acts like that! Kind of a pity, actually…"

InuYasha just rolled his eyes and turned away, shaking his head. His gaze sharpened; across the field, three boys were pushing Toushi around. One boy grabbed her ponytail and yanked her back while the others closed in to punch her. Feet and claws flew and the boys retreated, but they continued to taunt her from a safe distance.

"Otenbaaa! You should be learning sewing and cooking, not fighting! No girls allowed!"

Meanwhile, Bushi-sensei put away quivers and returned bows and staves to their racks, seeming not to notice the harassment taking place beside him.

InuYasha leapt over in a fury, chased the boys off, then jerked Bushi-sensei around to face him. "Hey! Are you just going to let them get away with tormenting my daughter. What's the big idea here anyway?"

"The idea is that a fighting woman must learn how to fight men. The sooner she learns they won't give her leniency for being a woman, the likelier she will survive when the fight is real. On the fighting floor, they will chose her, because they believe she is weaker. It is up to her to learn how to withstand this, and the sooner she understands that, the readier she will be."

"She's just a little girl!"

"You must take the long view, InuYasha-sama. You won't thank me for coddling her when she finds herself in a pinch, and neither will she."

"You're weaseling. I don't like it when people weasel," InuYasha growled. "You're avoiding your responsibilities to my family and..."

"I understand that it is difficult to watch this part of her training, but I assure you I am not avoiding my duties…"

"I say you are and I'm ordering you to make sure she gets treated fairly and respectfully."

"Yes, InuYasha-sama," Bushe-sensei replied, bowing respectfully.

InuYasha stared at him for a long moment, still seething, then turned around and stalked off, ears back and muttering curses.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few days later, when Miroku came up the hill to gather his daughters, he came up one short of a full count.

"Where's Neko?" he asked the gathered girls.

"Out there," Shinju replied, pointing out into the practice field.

"What?" Miroku squinted out across the sunlit field. After a long moment of looking, he found her among the little boys, completely coated in dust from falling practice. "Why does she want to do that?"

"Are you kidding?" Hisui asked. "Tsu-chan's out there. She's been sweet on him, like, forever."

"Follows him around like a puppy, not that he ever notices," Shinju added.

"Well, I should hope not!" Miroku cried. "She's only five! Let's see what her mother has to say about this."

Sango was more amused than outraged. "Well, we finally have someone who's interested in the family calling," she remarked after Neko enthusiastically showed everyone her falling skills.

"Sango, that's not the point!" Miroku cried. "She's out there because Tsuchiya is, not because she's actually interested."

Sango laughed. "Whatever the reason, it won't hurt her to learn a few battle skills. Besides, Tsuchiya's nine years old! About the last thing a boy that age wants is a girl hanging about. You go on and have fun out there," she told Neko. "Show me what you've learned and I'll show you a couple of special tricks for demon-fighting."

"Really?" Neko asked in delight.

"Absolutely."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Although there were no more incidents in the training field, the boys still tormented Toushi when they found her in the alleys and back lots of the village. She gave as good as she got, fiercely scornful of the opinion that a girl could never match a man's prowess in battle. Even so, they seem to have found a soft spot in her armor, since she vacillated between uncertainty and ferocity in the training sessions.

Lessons for the apt students had progressed from falling, blocking and striking to short bouts of roughly choreographed block and strike sequences. Bushi-sensei split the class into two groups that formed two circles of sparring partners. Each pair sparred briefly using the required sequence, then rotated to a new partner. By the time Toushi had worked her way around the circle, she had been knocked onto her back or forced to eat dust several times by resentful boys who were nearly twice her size. She stood up at the end of the drill, spat out her latest mouthful of dust, then flinched when Bushi-sensei called her to the front of the class. She presented herself and bowed.

"You will see me this afternoon," Bushi-sensei declared sternly.

Toushi's ears drooped. She'd done something - that was certain. Something so awful that Bushi-sensei would call her up here in front of everyone, then not follow through on the reprimand. It was a sure bet she was never going to hear the end of this one. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Well?" Bushi-sensei said, looking down his nose at her.

"Er…" she looked up at him, mind blank.

"Yes, Bushi-sensei?" he prompted her.

She shrank into herself even more. "Yes, Bushi-sensei," she echoed faintly. There wasn't anything else she could say.

"Class dismissed," Bushi-sensei said gruffly, then directed the students to put away the equipment.

After the lesson, Toushi approached her father to tell him the bad news. "Papa? Papa, Bushi-sensei wants me to see him this afternoon." She looked at her father nervously.

"Why?"

Toushi bit her lip and thought about it. "I don't know. I was trying really, really hard, but I still messed up and he said I had to see him this afternoon."

"Then, I guess we'll see him this afternoon and find out what this is all about."

"Yes, Papa."

Toushi waited until mid-afternoon, then she and InuYasha went to confront Bushi-sensei. They found him in the field practicing staff maneuvers and stood safely out of the way until he had completed his exercise and lowered the weapon.

"Ah, there you are," he said as she approached timorously and bowed. "I noticed you were having difficulties this morning."

She nodded briefly. "Yes."

"Do you know why?"

"Um, I did something wrong and…"

"You did as you were taught," he remarked.

"Then I'm not worthy to continue. I'm too weak and..."

"Those boys were twice as big as you were. Does that strike you as an unfair advantage?"

Toushi's ears flattened. "Yes," she said sullenly.

"Why? Do you think you will never meet someone bigger than you are in a real fight?"

Her ears drooped. "Oh."

"I'm sure your father can tell you some stories about fighting opponents that were bigger than he was. Stronger, too. How do you suppose he managed to win?"

"Um, because he's Papa?" Toushi replied.

That was unfortunately truer than Bushi-sensei wanted to admit. As far as he could tell, InuYasha won most of his battles by just being too stubborn to lose.

"Hmm, well, but you are not your papa, so how do you win?"

Toushi paused, then asked, "You mean I can win?"

"Of course. Size isn't as big an advantage as you think. Would you like to know how little people win?"

"Yeah!"

InuYasha drew back to watch from the sidelines as Bushi-sensei showed Toushi methods of tackling larger opponents.

As usual, the only warning of Toto-sai's eminent arrival was a loud rumble. Moments later, Toto-sai's massive three-eyed ox dropped from the sky bearing Toto-sai on its back.

"About fucking time!" InuYasha snarled as he turned away from Toushi's special lesson and bounded across the field. Kagome heard the commotion and came out of the house to join them.

"I can't fix it," Toto-sai declared as InuYasha reached out eagerly for Tetsusaiga.

"What?!" InuYasha bellowed. "You mean it's permanently damaged?!"

"No, it can be fixed, but I can't do it," Toto-sai replied. "I expect the person who can is here."

"What the Hell are you yammering about?" InuYasha snarled. "You're the only one here who can reforge a magic sword!"

"It doesn't need reforged," Toto-sai retorted. "It needs exorcised. Watch this."

He hopped off the ox's back and placed the drawn sword on a stone block, then struck it with his hammer.

Once again, the little girl in the orange kimono burst out of the sword. She stamped her feet and yelled, "You are so mean! Why can't you leave me alone? I hate boys!" She burst into tears and vanished.

InuYasha's jaw dropped. "Toushi?" he said tentatively.

"You know her." Toto-sai said.

"Well, yes, that's my daughter, but she's been here all along. How can she be in the sword?"

Toto-sai snorted and pointed at the sword. "That isn't your daughter so much as it is the disembodied spirit of her anger. That spirit has made a home in the sword and every time a 'boy' touches the sword, she strikes out to drive him away."

"She doesn't hate me," InuYasha said, snatching Tetsusaiga from Toto-sai. Tetsusaiga wailed angrily as he seized it and flashed off a burst of reiki. InuYasha dropped the sword and looked disbelievingly at his smoking hand. "Shit."

"What happens if a 'girl' touches the sword?" Kagome asked. She took the sword and held it easily. InuYasha glowered at her.

Kagome ran her hand along the back of the sword's blade, pushing her senses down into the core of the sword. "Part of my calling is exorcism," she said softly. "Let's see if I can coax her out. Toushi? Will you come out and talk to me?"

"Hi, Mama. What's going on?" Kagome started and looked at the physical Toushi who was now standing beside her watching the proceedings curiously. Bushi-sensei was standing behind her, equally interested in the afternoon's unusual interruption.

"Is this the girl?" Toto-sai asked. Toushi had had a growth spurt in the time between the wedding and today, and this cheerful, agreeable Toushi did not much resemble the angry, distraught Toushi who inhabited the sword.

"That's Papa's sword!" Toushi said eagerly as she recognized Tetsusaiga. "Is it fixed?"

"No, I can't fix it," Toto-sai replied. "You are the one who must fix it."

"Uh, me?" Toushi gulped. "But I don't know anything about swords."

"You don't have to. You just need to remove your anger from Tetsusaiga."

Toushi put her hands to her mouth and looked with horrified eyes at the sword. "I don't know how to do that either…" she said faintly.

"Nevertheless. I have done all I can do." With that statement, Toto-sai leaped back onto his ox and vanished in a puff of sulfurous smoke.

For a long moment, everyone looked at the dissipating smoke of Toto-sai's departure, then their glances slid to the sword in Kagome's hand.

"So this is your magic sword, is it?" Bushi-sensei remarked. "It's seen a hard life."

"Tch," InuYasha snorted. "It always looks like a piece of junk until I summon its power."

"Interesting..." Bushi-sensei examined the sword for a moment longer, then withdrew to let the "magical folk" decide how they were going to handle the situation.

Toto-sai said Toushi had to do it, so Kagome coached her through the basic procedure of an exorcism. Together, they spent some time meditating to get into the correct mind-set for an exorcism, then they approached the sword. On Kagome's cue, InuYasha drew the sword. Power swirled in a discordant wail, then Angry Toushi erupted from Tetsusaiga, spitting and snarling. Toushi froze. She was still haunted by the memory of almost killing her father, so when confronted by the spirit-echo of that day, the living Toushi crumpled into a ball at Angry Toushi's feet, crying hysterically.

InuYasha dropped the sword to sweep his daughter up and carry her into the house, away from the sight of Angry Toushi. With her challenger gone, Angry Toushi dissolved back into the sword. Kagome sheathed Tetsusaiga, then returned to the house. She and InuYasha exchanged grim looks over Toushi's head. They now knew what had to be done, but their shaken little girl wasn't up to the task.

After the children had been settled into bed for the night, InuYasha disappeared into the darkness. Kagome went to bed, but sleep did not come. Eventually, she heard InuYasha return, swearing under his breath, but he did not enter the house. She got up to investigate and found him sitting on the porch looking out into the night.

"Are you coming in?" she asked, sitting down beside him.

"Keh." He blew out a dismissive breath and continued to look out into the moonlit meadow.

Kagome just sat and waited.

"Kagome, I need Tetsusaiga." _I can't afford to indulge Toushi's sensitivities._ He didn't say that part, but it was obvious he was tearing himself up over it.

"You know, I really didn't get a chance to try exorcising Tetsusaiga, myself, earlier. It's quieter now. Let me see if I can pacify her."

Kagome fetched the sword and sat down on the porch once more. She unsheathed it, then ran her hand along the back of the blade, and said softly, "Toushi, it's Mama. I know you're upset. Will you come out and talk to me?"

Frost spread quickly over Tetsusaiga's blade and Angry Toushi said, "I don't want to talk to you." A moment later, the sword was too cold to handle.

"Huh. That went well," InuYasha said. "So, what did you do to piss her off?

"I don't know, but she's shutting me out. I could get rough, but I think it will just make it worse. She doesn't need an excuse to stoke her anger."

"Great. So, now what?"

"Maybe Miroku could…?"

"Miroku? He's male, and right now she's rejecting everything male."

"Yeah, but he might be able to think of another way to draw her out. We aren't going to be getting anywhere until morning, anyway, so let's go to bed."

Miroku was drawn into the discussion the next morning after breakfast. Kagome described Toto-sai's demonstration and her attempt at drawing Toushi out of the sword.

"Let me try some ofuda," Miroku offered. "The magic depends on the sutras, not the personality of the wielder."

"Are you sure about that?" Kagome asked dubiously. She remembered his lessons about how to create ofuda, how it involved holding in one's mind the desired effect while writing, and she couldn't see how that could be done without imprinting one's personality into the paper along with the scripture.

Miroku shrugged. "It couldn't hurt to try, could it?"

"I... hope not," Kagome said hesitantly. She handed over Tetsusaiga anyway.

Miroku drew the sword, then put it down quickly, shaking his hand. "Wow, that stings." He pulled some ofuda from his sleeve, then placed them over the sword. The ink grew vividly black, lifted off the papers, then exploded onto Miroku, searing the sutras into his face and arms. Miroku was thrown onto his back, stunned, amid a fluttering of deactivated ofuda papers.

Toushi's phantom rose out of the sword to snarl, "Don't touch me!" before disappearing back into Tetsusaiga.

"Is there something I should know about you and my daughter?" InuYasha growled.

"Er…" Miroku said groggily, "What?…"

"If you have ever laid your filthy, lecherous hands on my little girl…"

"No!" Miroku yelped. "Of course not! I'm not crazy! Besides, she is seriously too young to be interesting that way…."

"So you have been thinking about it!" InuYasha snarled, his ears back and his hair raising all around his head.

Miroku nervously eyed InuYasha's twitching fingers and said, "Whoa, whoa, get a grip. There is no way I would touch one of your girls because I already know you would eviscerate me for even considering it. I… I just tried to exorcise the spirit in Tetsusaiga, and that spirit is not pleased about it. By the way, that wasn't youki she threw at me, it was pure reiki. I'm not trained in subduing reiki."

InuYasha's hair slowly settled back onto his head, but his fingers continued twitching ominously.

"Yeah, that's kind of a problem, isn't it?" Kagome chimed in. "None of us are trained to handle a troublesome reiki outburst."

Miroku took a deep breath, then said, "I know this is treading on sensitive ground, but what exactly did Kikyo wield? I never really contended with her."

InuYasha muttered something inaudible under his breath while Kagome ran her hand through her hair and closed her eyes, trying to sift through her memories. "That's kind of hard. She still had some grip on her inborn reiki, since she could purify the jewel shards and assist aggrieved souls, but she used youki to keep her body animated. The soul-collectors were youkai, and youki-magic kept the dead girls' souls corralled. You know, I always met up with the youki, now that I think about it, so …"

"So we still have no experience for tackling an angry reiki spirit," Miroku concluded.

"Yeah."

They took the sword to Kaede next since she was the one with the longest experience. Unfortunately, long experience doesn't always equate to far-ranging experience. Kaede was a talented healer, but she only had only performed the small exorcisms a backwater miko might encounter and had nothing useful to add to the discussion.

InuYasha's frustration expressed itself in a black mood that soon permeated the entire household. Toushi was acutely aware that she was the cause of Papa's sullenness. She flinched whenever InuYasha looked at her and grew paralyzed with anxiety as her father's mood darkened.

Nobody relieved her from her normal activities, especially Aunt Sakura. Toushi still had to present herself three times a week for mindfulness training. After she found Toushi staring at the wall in mind-locked distraction for the third time running when she was supposed to be meditating, Aunt Sakura abruptly called an end to the exercise and asked, "All right, young lady, what's going on?"

"Um, what?" Toushi blinked and looked at her aunt with unfocused eyes.

Aunt Sakura snapped her fingers in front of Toushi's nose and ordered, "You. Here. Now."

Toushi looked cross-eyed at the fingers floating in front of her face then dragged herself into the present.

Aunt Sakura looked into the wary golden eyes facing her and said, "We both know that meditation and 'spacing out' are not the same thing. You are entirely too absorbed in something and I want to know what it is."

She watched Toushi's eyes transition from wary to anxious to haunted desperation. Tears welled up in Toushi's eyes, her lips quivered, then she cried, "I can't do it! I just can't!"

"Do what?" Aunt Sakura asked.

"F..f..fix Papa's sword," she sobbed.

"Goodness, child, why are you expected to fix his sword?" Aunt Sakura asked, frowning. "Wasn't some youkai smith working on it?"

"He came back an' said he couldn't fix it 'cause it needs exorcised an' I'm the only one who can do it."

"That's just one person's opinion…"

"No, it's not," Toushi interrupted tearfully. "Mama tried an' Miroku-sama tried an' … and…"

"Ah. So, why you?"

"Because I'm the spirit haunting the sword."

Aunt Sakura's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Oh, now, are you indeed?"

Toushi nodded glumly. "Yes. I… I saw the spirit jump out of the sword when Toto-sai hit it," she whispered. "It was me in my orange kimono from Cousin Toyo's wedding and I… she… I was so mad I wanted to kill every boy that was ever born and I almost killed Papa and there I was again wanting to… to really hurt someone and … I've been trying so hard to stop getting mad and wanting to hurt people, but I still do. I looked at her and I knew nothing in me had changed. How am I supposed to exorcise Papa's sword when I just want to die?"

Aunt Sakura sighed and gazed soberly at Toushi for a long moment, then said, "Ah, Sakura-chan, it is a very hard thing to look at your dark side and accept it as a part of yourself, even for someone as old as me. Still, you will never exorcise the sword until you can embrace and love that angry girl inside it."

"Love her?" Toushi gasped, aghast. "No! I can't love her. I hate her! I hate everything about her."

"Oh, my. So young and fierce and so sure you can be all one thing or another! Just throw away those bits you don't like and everything will be wonderful. It doesn't work. You are what you are and that's not going to change."

"What?" Toushi cried. "I thought you were going to help me change and you're saying I can't? Then why am I coming here?"

"I know you're not ready to hear this, but you are here to learn to know and accept what you are and use that knowledge to make worthy choices. You are always going to get angry, and sometimes getting angry is the right thing to do. All the great changes in the world are made by people who got frustrated or angry and then used their anger to give them the strength to make those changes. I am hoping you will learn to retain clarity and mercy even when you are angry. Then, you will be truly formidable."

Clarity and mercy and anger, all together? Impossible. Toushi looked at her interlaced fingers despondently and wondered how she could ever hope to achieve anything like that. Aunt Sakura wanted too much; she was essentially flawed and she couldn't do it.

Aunt Sakura caught her chin and tipped her head up, forcing her to look into her formidable black eyes. "No you don't, young lady. You can too do it, just not right now. Like I said, you are not ready. Right now, let's just work on soothing the spirit in the sword."

"But…"

"But, but, but. No but. Today when we meditate, we are going to focus on the girl in the sword. Meditate on what you see, what you remember, what you feel. When we are done, you will tell me everything you know about that girl and I will tell you what I see, and then we will see what we can do."

"Um, OK..." Toushi wasn't sure how this would help, but Aunt Sakura had a plan and that was more than she had.

"First, we shall have tea."

By now, Toushi was used to Aunt Sakura's sideways leaps into seemingly irrelevant activities. Although what she did didn't usually make sense at the time, she never did anything without a purpose.

Aunt Sakura chose a bracing tea; they breathed the steam in silence and sipped the mildly astringent brew. Then Aunt Sakura turned their cushions toward the boldly written scroll in the alcove and gently struck the meditation chime.

The months of practice helped Toushi sink into deep silence while she breathed through her belly, hands cradled in her lap and eyes half-shut. Angry Toushi appeared in the lambent silence to float before her, snarling and spitting with fury. Suddenly she was there, inside the girl, back at that day… that horrible day. She could feel the sticky, gloppy persimmon on the back of her head and the overwhelming surge of hurt that roared through her. For once in her life, she had been really pretty, she had felt really good about herself and Tsuchiya had absolutely ruined it. Behind that floated the memory of every time some other village boy had taunted her or made cutting remarks about her ears, her claws, or her fangs, her distaste for normal feminine activities; how they all felt so clever and strong whenever some comment made her flinch. It was so unfair, she never did anything to them and still…

A burning lump grew in her chest until it was so large she could scarcely breathe around it. Then the bell chimed, signaling the end of the meditation period. Toushi released her concentration, then felt the hot tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I see you learned something," Aunt Sakura remarked. "Do you want to share it with me?"

"I hate boys," Toushi said sulkily.

Aunt Sakura looked at Toushi's flattened ears and snorted softly. "Hmph. That tracks with what you've told me about the sword's spirit. So, do you know why you hate boys?"

"They're so mean to me. They say I have weird ears and ugly eyes and I use my claws to catch rats for dinner and, and… and they think they're so smart being mean like that." She sniffed and glared at Aunt Sakura, daring her to deny it.

"Boys certainly can be little beasts," Aunt Sakura agreed. "What about men? Your grandfather, your father, your Uncle Sota? They're boys, too, you know."

The tilt of Toushi's ears changed from belligerent to merely unhappy. "Yeah, I guess. But there's a lot of men that say mean things too. Creepy, unnatural little chit, no one should see into folk like that, better she were dead… "

"They're afraid."

"I've never done anything to them!" Toushi protested.

"You don't have to. It's what you are that's so threatening."

"That's not fair!"

"No, it's not. That's another thing you can't change."

Toushi turned aside and glowered at the wall. "It's stupid. Mean and stupid and I hate it."

"I would be very disappointed in you if you felt otherwise."

Toushi glared sullenly at Aunt Sakura and demanded. "What am I s'posed to do about it if I can't change anything?"

"I didn't say there was nothing you can do. We're trying to fix your father's sword, so let's focus on that particular problem. Right now, it won't let him use it because he's a boy. Suppose you spend some time thinking about what makes him different from the other boys and men you know. When you know in your heart that he really is different, you will be able to release the sword to his use. That should be enough. The sword really doesn't have to like any one else, now does it?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It all made sense when she was talking to Aunt Sakura, but now that she was home, it was all… wrong. It didn't matter to Toushi at all that Papa was a boy, he was Papa and that made all the difference in the world. Except it didn't. No matter what she felt about Papa, the Toushi in the sword had another opinion, and she didn't know why.

A couple of days later, Kagome found Toushi sitting glumly in a corner staring far off into the distance at something only she could see.

"You've been quiet lately," she remarked.

Toushi huffed softly and looked away, frowning peevishly.

That girl got more like her father with every passing day. Kagome put down the laundry she was carrying and sat down beside her daughter. "You know, clamming up doesn't fix anything."

"Mama!" Toushi protested. "I don't need your help!"

"Oh, I think maybe you do. You just don't want to admit it. Your Papa does this to me all the time, so don't pretend I don't know what I'm talking about."

"I'm not Papa," Toushi grumbled.

"No, you're not. You're a little girl with a very big problem who has a Mama who just might be useful if you will let her be. By the time Papa was your age, he didn't have a Mama to help him anymore, so he isn't used to getting help."

Well, I don't know what you could dooo," Toushi retorted.

"Neither do I until you tell me the problem."

"I can't fix Papa's sword and neither can you!" Toushi cried with great exasperation.

"Ah. I thought Aunt Sakura had helped you with some ideas…"

"Yeah, but they won't work," Toushi huffed.

"You never did tell me what she said," Kagome reminded her.

"What difference does it make if it won't work?!" Toushi demanded.

"Well, we can talk about why it won't work and maybe get another idea to try," Kagome said patiently.

"Yeah, right."

Just like her father - sometimes Kagome wanted to strangle the girl. Did she have to be so obstinate? Instead, she just sat quietly beside her, waiting out the stubborn pride with unyielding patience.

"OK, fine. Aunt Sakura said it's all because I hate boys and I gotta make it think Papa isn't like other boys. It's just, I never thought Papa was like other boys and it does, so I don't have anything to change to make it change with me."

"Ah, so Aunt Sakura is thinking that you and the spirit are still tied enough that anything you feel will affect her behavior."

"Um, I guess."

"It doesn't always work that way. The longer you are separated from the spirit, the looser the ties get, until she gets her own personality. The spirit started as a projection of your anger, so everything she sees is going to get colored by that anger. Since she no longer completely reflects your feelings, we may have to talk to her to find out why she feels that particular way about Papa."

"Talk to her?" Toushi gasped faintly. Her last encounter had not gone at all well.

"Yes, talk to her. She's more likely to talk if we give her a gift that she'll like. Can you think of something you would like to get?"

"Me?"

"I expect the things that please you will also please her. She came from inside you, after all."

"Oh."

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It really wasn't that hard to think of a gift. The hard part was screwing up the nerve to confront a part of herself she loathed. So she ducked and she dithered while Mama made it altogether too easy to just get on with the job with her knowledgable suggestions and frequent coaching. She fled to Bushi-sensei, immersing herself in every bit of arcane instruction she could wheedle out of him until he called her bluff.

"Toushi, I do know the difference between one who is seeking and one who is hiding. You are hiding, and I would know the reason why."

Toushi studied the turf at his feet with great absorption, not daring to look up. "Sensei, I.. I'm not sure I'm holding my hands right when …"

"Toushi-chan, I absolutely guarantee you the position of your left little finger makes no difference whatsoever in the effectiveness of that kick," Bushi-sensei said drily. "Now, answer me honestly - are you here trying to shirk your duty to your father, your family and this village by hiding from your task of exorcising your father's sword?"

It sounded pretty awful the way Bushi-sensei said it. It was a fair bet that he wasn't going to be sympathetic to her being just a little girl. Warriors didn't hide. Warriors did their duty. All the stories said that. She said she wanted to be a warrior, and if she wanted Bushi-sensei to believe her and keep teaching her, she was going to have to step up now and do her duty.

Toushi stood for a long silent moment, then confessed, "I… I don't really know what to do and I'm afraid I'll make it worse."

"Ah. That's better. Only foolish warriors are never afraid when they face a difficult task. They study and prepare, but when the time comes when they must do, they do, as you well know. Now, I can help you review your preparations, if you wish."

"Yes, Sensei. I would like that." Anything to buy more time…

The ensuing discussion would have been fascinating but for the knowledge that after it was over, Toushi was going to have to do what was discussed. Bushi-sensei did not know anything about magic, but he fully understood an exorcism was a battle, and he understood very well how to prepare for that.

"A last word, Toushi-chan. You may think you know what's going to happen, but you don't. Everything changes when you encounter the enemy, so above all, you must not become so set in your plan that you cannot move outside it when the situation requires it. We have just spent the afternoon guessing what will happen. Always remember, it's just a guess. You won't know anything until you are in the middle of it."

With that "comforting" thought, Toushi was sent out to execute her plan.

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No battle plan survives contact with the enemy…

Since the spirit in the sword had demonstrated a distaste for InuYasha, Kagome and pretty much anyone else in the village, Kagome coached Toushi once more through talking to spirits, then sent her into a small room alone with the sword. Toushi placed her very frilliest hairbow on Tetsusaiga's naked blade as an offering to the spirit within, then she sat back on her knees to see what happened.

The sword glowed briefly, then Toushi's apparition rose out of the sword and hovered gleefully over the bow, cooing her appreciation. A moment later, she saw Toushi and confronted her, ears plastered back on her head. "What are you staring at?" she snarled.

"It's not the same as looking in a mirror," Toushi observed with wonder.

"What isn't? Are you saying you're me?" her apparition demanded. Her ears relaxed a bit as she realized Toushi wasn't staring at the persimmon still plastered to the back of her head.

"Uh, sort of, except, you're me. I, uh, kind of threw you out of me when I got mad at Tsuchiya at Cousin Toyo's wedding and you went into Papa's sword. We kind of need you to come out of the sword so he can use it again."

The ears flattened back down again and the golden eyes blazed. "Hmmph! No!"

"Oh! Um, you can stay if you want, as long as you let Papa use the sword…" Toushi amended, hoping to mollify the apparition.

"NOO!" The apparition's rising anger made the air prickle with reiki.

"But…"

"But what?!" the apparition demanded. "Papa jumped to help Tsuchiya, didn't he? What did he do for me? I was the one who got persimmon all over me for doing nothing!"

"Ohhh." Toushi had felt a surge of aggrieved hurt sweep through her when she saw her tormentor get saved, not punished. And Papa did it. For a very brief flash, she had been soul-struck at Papa's decision to go to Tsuchiya and not her. That feeling was back now in all its raw, pounding power. The apparition was right; Papa didn't deserve to have Tetsusaiga.

The spirit melted back into Tetsusaiga with wounded dignity.

Toushi left the room, still seething in the stew of toxic emotions the spirit had summoned. She found her parents sitting near the doorway, waiting to learn how the encounter had gone. They gave her a hopeful look and Kagome asked, "Well? How did it go?"

She snarled at them as she stalked by with her ears back.

"That good, huh?" InuYasha muttered after her.

Her spine went even stiffer as she continued to stalk away.

Toushi's attitude toward her parents remained sour. A few hours later, InuYasha remarked to Kagome, "You know, when someone's mad at me, I usually know what I did…"

"Really?" Kagome replied drily.

"OK, so I don't always admit it, but I do know why. Toushi, though - I have no idea what I did to get her so pissed. Every time I get near her, she snarls."

Kagome sighed. "She won't talk to me, either. I wonder what happened in there."

The impasse continued until Toushi's next session with Aunt Sakura. The old woman cheerfully refused to allow Toushi to leave her presence without the full story of her encounter with the spirit in the sword. Despite Toushi's nastiness, she showed no sign of frustration or impatience; instead, her black eyes shone with kindness and good humor. Toushi's bad temper rose to the challenge; by the time the tale was told, every bit of self-pity and righteous injury had been described in lurid detail for Aunt Sakura's edification.

"So, do you feel better now?" Aunt Sakura asked as Toushi finally wound down.

"Hmph!"

"Ah. For today's meditation, I want you to go back to that day, and remember that moment, then remember the moment that came after it. When we are done, we shall talk."

Toushi sniffed and flicked her ears haughtily. Aunt Sakura smiled.

Well, fine. She could return to the moment she threw the flask; it wasn't like she hadn't been wallowing in it for days. She settled into a lotus position and allowed herself to fully sink into the moment she felt the persimmon strike her head, the moment she snatched the flask and threw it with all her power at Tsuchiya, the moment Papa flew into view and knocked Tsuchiya aside, the moment Papa caught the full impact of the reiki-charged missile, the moment Tetsusaiga's scabbard shattered, the moment Papa crashed to the ground in agony with his hair rippling between silver and dusky charcoal and his eyes shifting from gold to black and back again. Toushi gasped, once again remembering the horror of wondering if Papa was going to die and knowing she was the one who did it. A moment later, Mama hurried to Papa's side; Toushi felt again the pain of wanting Mama's reassurance, but knowing that Papa needed her more. Tears rose up and she bit down a sob.

Aunt Sakura rang the bell, ending the meditation session. She looked at Toushi's remorseful face and nodded. "That's better. She cast quite the spell on you, locking you into her moment. You moved on and learned the consequences of your anger, but she never did. She's still stuck there."

"So what do I do now?" Toushi asked. She'd lost both encounters with the spirit and was not at all sure she had what it took to win.

"She's never going to dissipate like a normal emotion-projection as long as she has Tetsusaiga to sustain her..."

"She won't leave Tetsusaiga," Toushi remarked.

"...so we need to give her satisfaction." "Like what?"

"It could be a lot of things. It could be soothing her hurt feelings, or finding her a better home, or… never mind. We won't do that one."

"What one?"

"The one where we let her fulfill her need to hurt Tsuchiya. No. No, that won't do at all. We must find a solution that brings her in line with the Dharma. Only then will she truly find peace."

"Yeah, but what do we do?" Toushi asked.

"The answer will come in its own time. For now, we wait."

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Toushi woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of something falling heavily on the porch.

"Aaaaaugh... Shit." It was Papa.

"Kagome-sama? Are you awake?" That was Miroku-sama.

Mama whisked out of the bedroom carrying a lamp and went to the porch to inspect the damage.

"Wait here, I'll fetch my kit," she said softly, then retreated to pull her medical kit from the shelves. Toushi watched her root through the kit quickly, then reach for a jug of special potion she kept for emergencies with her youkai. She hastened back to the porch. Toushi crawled to the doorway and peered out to see what was going on. She watched Mama kneel beside Papa, then coax him out of his kimono and shirt. Deep slashes crossed his chest and belly and bites scored his arms. Streaks of blood ran through his hair and his right ear was nearly shredded.

"What happened?" Kagome asked as she started to clean InuYasha's wounds. "Miroku-sama?"

"I'm fine. We ran out of ofuda, though, and InuYasha had to jump in to finish them off."

"What were they?"

"Bat Tribe," InuYasha replied. "One of the hostile branches. The word's getting around that I don't have my sword, so they decided to test our strength, see if they could push their way in. AAaa! Hey! Take it easy!"

Kagome continued cleaning the gash on his belly. "Sit still. You know as well as I do that the wounds heal faster when they're cleaned properly. And you're going to drink your potion, too."

"Ugh. That stuff is vile."

Toushi could relate to that comment. Mama had made her drink it once after she had blundered into a nest of wasp demons. It really did almost pickle your tongue.

"Too bad. Those bites look poisoned. The restoratives will have you back on your feet by noon. Now, let me have a look at that ear."

"Not if you're going to smear that goop on it. It stings like Hell."

"You can let me look at it or you can resign yourself to looking like Kenta. Your choice…"

"All right, fine. Mess with the damned ear."

Good decision, Toushi thought. Her baby brother, Kenta, looked kind of goofy with one erect ear and one floppy one.

Kagome carefully cleaned the tatters, then taped them together and placed a stiff paper frame in his ear to hold it in place. Once that was done, she cleaned more superficial wounds on his scalp and arms.

"Anything else?" she asked as she finished the last of the visible damage. "Legs OK?"

"Yeah, that's it. They didn't care to fly low."

Kagome put aside the cleaning solutions and bandages, then reached for the potion and cup. She poured a healthy dose into the cup and handed it to InuYasha. "Drink up."

"This really isn't necess…"

"Now."

InuYasha inspected the contents of the cup, took a deep breath and knocked it back in one swallow, then shuddered. "Urrgh. Could you possibly make it taste any worse?"

"Actually, I could. A little more yuzu peel should do the trick."

InuYasha shuddered again. "You are a cruel, heartless woman."

"See? You're feeling perkier already. Let me put this stuff away, then we'll see if you can stand."

Toushi slipped back against the wall as Kagome entered the kitchen and put her medical kit back on the shelf, then turned back to help Miroku get InuYasha onto his feet. They entered the house; Kagome and Miroku each had one of InuYasha's arms draped around their shoulders to steady him as they walked carefully into the bedroom. They let him down slowly onto the bed, then returned to the porch. Kagome bade Miroku good night, then collected InuYasha's kimono and returned to drape it over him. A moment later, the lamp was extinguished and Toushi was once more in the dark.

She sat for a long time, watching the dull red glow of the banked fire and remembering how messed up Papa had looked in the lamplight. She started to get very angry with that self-centered spirit inhabiting the sword. OK, so she had been neglected temporarily in the emergency at the wedding, but that was over long ago and, really, Papa had saved her from doing something horrible. Angry Toushi had a few things to answer for.

She got up quickly and marched to the rack that held the sword and wrestled it down. It was a great deal heavier than she imagined, but her anger gave her the strength to place it in front of the family shrine and draw it from the scabbard.

The sword started wailing again and an orange glow swirled out of the sword to hover over it. Angry Toushi's image manifested within the glow.

"Oh! It's you," Angry Toushi sniffed. "You didn't bring a present this time."

"Shut up!" Toushi snapped. "You don't deserve a present. Just so you know, Papa just got really hurt 'cuz he couldn't use Tetsusaiga."

"Hmph! That's what he gets for being mean to me."

"He… He was never mean to you! You're the one who's being mean!"

"Me?! I just want to be left alone."

"No, you don't. All you gotta to do is sit there and let Papa use Tetsusaiga and no one will ever bother you again, and you know it. But you want to be mean and hurt people instead."

"Oooohh, and you've never wanted to hurt anyone! Then how did I get here, huh?"

That remark caused a jolt of guilt that made Toushi even angrier. "Okay, yeah, I know it's my fault and I gotta fix it. I have to get you out."

"You? You don't have the strength," the spirit retorted.

"Yes, I do," Toushi declared. She lunged for the spirit. Her hand went right through the Angry Toushi; there was nothing to grasp, although her hand and forearm tingled with wild energy. Energy bubbled up within her and raced up her arm to push the tingle away. Just as she was about to release it, something deep in her core whispered, _No. Pull_. Pull? How? Her wrist twisted of its own volition, and her hand closed into a fist. With a strange, ripping sensation, she pulled the spirit free from the sword and held her so that they were nearly nose to nose.

Angry Toushi writhed in her grasp trying to escape. "No! NOO! You can't!" Her golden eyes now looked terrified.

Pity welled up in Toushi. Yes, the spirit had been bad and she had to be stopped, but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt her.

"I'm sorry," Toushi said, "but you can't stay there any more. Papa needs Tetsusaiga to keep everybody here safe. He can't do it all by himself."

"I'll die without Tetsusaiga!" the spirit wailed.

"You don't belong in Tetsusaiga. You belong with me." It may have been true, it may have been right, but that didn't make it easy. Accepting Angry Toushi back into herself was a great deal like taking Mama's potion, bitter, sharp, and hot with just enough of a refreshing sweetness to make it truly nasty. Angry Toushi didn't go willingly; power prickled through her in great waves as Angry Toushi fought to break free; Toushi felt like she had the spirit of a puffer fish blowing up inside her and trying to force its way through her skin. She shuddered violently and fell to her hands and knees, retching.

"No," Toushi gasped between waves, "you can't do that." She tried to clamp down on Angry Toushi and force her into a controlled corner.

With Angry Toushi's wails shrilling in her head and Angry Toushi's attacks rippling through her muscles, Toushi rode out another wave of protest. Angry Toushi was not showing any sign of weakening; if anything, she was getting stronger. Toushi wondered desperately what it was going to take to quell Angry Toushi's fury.

_Let the cricket go…_ Toushi blinked at the sudden thought that arrived out of nowhere. Angry Toushi was like her hoppy-cricket thoughts. The more you tried to contain them, the harder they were to manage. She dropped the fight and suddenly there was infinite space in her head, more than enough space for her and her angry spirit.

Angry Toushi slashed out again in her fury, but met no resistance. There was nothing to slash, nothing to push, nothing but boundless, lambent space. The silence and space were unnerving. "You coward!" she called into the vastness. " Where are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding. I just… stopped fighting you."

Angry Toushi could not tell where the voice was coming from. It seemed to be everywhere around her. "Then come out and show me where you are!"

The Everywhere swirled around her and formed around a focus, then Toushi materialized within the focus. She looked at Angry Toushi with calm detachment.

Angry Toushi looked all around her, trying to find where Toushi had been hiding. "Where did you come from? How did you do that?"

"All I did was Look at you." Toushi replied. She spread her arms and looked about here, then said, "You are inside me now. This is all me."

Stepping back had formed a bubble of detachment around Angry Toushi; after Toushi had had a chance to collect herself and find her tranquil center, she looked around to see what had become of her angry spirit. Angry Toushi was still full of fight, but no longer capable of doing anything about it. Toushi hoped she was ready be reasonable.

Angry Toushi looked around herself suspiciously. She tried to contact the wall of her bubble, but every time she moved, it moved with her. Toushi continued to just watch her quietly from the focus in the wall.

"So now what?" Angry Toushi demanded. "Are you coming in or are you too scared to come any closer?"

"I'm not scared," Toushi snapped, bristling.

"Really." Angry Toushi challenged. "Show me."

Toushi squashed her doubts and stepped forward boldly; the bubble thinned until she and her spirit were nose to nose. Angry Toushi grabbed her, snarling. Hoping that this was what Aunt Sakura meant, Toushi spread her psychic arms wide, then pulled Angry Toushi close in a hug. Angry Toushi gasped and tried to pull back. "No! What are you doing?"

"Bringing you home. Unless you'd rather stay in that bubble..."

Now that they were so close, Toushi could feel the thrill of alarm that surged through Angry Toushi. "No. Not that. I… I'll come." Toushi held her closer, until the borders between them dissolved and Angry Toushi was once more a part of herself. Her inner vision faded away, and she found herself once more crouching in the dark before the family shrine with Papa's drawn sword gleaming faintly beside her.

Something rustled behind her. She turned to see what it was. Mama was by the hearth, stirring the fire back to life.

"Mama?"

"Ah. You're back." Mama smiled at her and returned to her work at the fire. "I'll have some soup for you in a few minutes."

Soup sounded really good, but it didn't make up for Mama not being there when she needed her.

"I didn't go anywhere," Toushi said sullenly. "So, why didn't you help me?"

"I wanted to, but you had a spirit-shield wrapped around you that I couldn't get through," Mama replied. "How did it go?" she added, glancing at Tetsusaiga. "Is she…?"

"I pulled her out," Toushi said shortly.

Mama glanced at Tetsusaiga once more, then looked around the room briefly. "Where is…?

"She's inside me."

Mama's eyebrows rose briefly, then she turned back to the soup. "Ah, that explains…"

"That explains what?" Toushi snapped.

"Why you're feeling, er, prickly right now," Mama said.

Toushi glowered at her for a moment. "I am not feeling prickly," she grumbled. Except, actually, she was. Her tense ears relaxed slightly, then drooped despondently. "Mama, am I always going to be prickly now?"

"You're tired, and that never helps a body's temper. I expect you'll feel a lot better after some soup and a good sleep," Mama replied, handing her a bowl of soup.

That was scarcely a satisfactory answer. Toushi glared at her while she sipped her soup. Surely Mama knew whether or not she had conquered Angry Toushi. Why wouldn't she just say…?

Mama must have slipped something in the soup. The sun was high in the sky when she woke up.

"About time," Tsuchiya growled when she sat up. "I had to do your chores, too."

"That's enough, Tsu-chan," Mama said. "She had a hard night."

"Doing what? Snoring?!" Tsuchiya scoffed.

"No, I exorcised Papa's sword," Toushi declared.

"No way - I would have heard that."

"Not necessarily," Mama said. "She was surrounded by a spirit shield that blocked out sight and sound."

So there… Toushi stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Is Papa awake?" she asked her mother.

"Not yet," Mama said. She glanced quickly into the bedroom, "but I expect him up soon."

That was what Toushi wanted to hear. She scrambled to her feet and trotted into the bedroom to sit by Papa and wait to tell him her news.

Just as Mama predicted, Papa stirred a few minutes later and opened his eyes. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, then closed his eyes again. He stretched and flexed his arms before sitting up and running his hand through his hair. "Ohh, damn. Unnh... Could do without nights like that… " He brushed against his shredded ear. "Shit! Kagome!"

"Papa?"

InuYasha blinked and looked at the eager little face beside him. "Toushi?"

"Papa, I fixed the sword."

"You… You did?" Papa's expression changed from misery to a ferocious eagerness. He rolled to his feet with unexpected energy and leaped into the main room to swoop his sword up from its place before the shrine. As soon as he grasped it, it activated, growing huge and keen in his hands. He swung it quickly, savoring its youki hum. "About time!" He grasped it with both hands and let it power up.

"Oh, no you don't! Take it outside!" Kagome ordered. "You are not blowing my house to pieces."

"Fine." InuYasha bounded out the door into the meadow.

"Better yet, take it to the forest. We don't want to blow away the village, either!" she called after him.

"Yo! Bushi-sensei! I'll bet you want to see what Tetsusaiga can do!" InuYasha called across the meadow to Bush-sensei's cottage.

Bushi-sensei looked out his door to see InuYasha standing in the meadow with Tetsusaiga held triumphantly over his head. This was an InuYasha he had never seen before; the black mood had dropped away and the man looked scarcely eighteen in his exuberance.

"Why, yes, I am interested," Bushi-sensei replied.

"The forest, InuYasha!" Kagome called again from the porch.

"Come on!" InuYasha called as he disappeared up the forest path, running so lightly he seemed to float. Bushi-sensei hurried after him.

InuYasha stopped in a wide clearing and turned around, tasting the breeze. "Yeah, this is perfect. Lots of room, and half the forest is watching. This'll get the word out that Tetsusaiga is back!" He grasped the sword with both hands and powered up the sword's vortex. Even Bushi-sensei, blind though he was to most magical influences, could feel the ripples of power pulsing from the sword. Just when Bushi-sensei's teeth were itching with the tension in the air, InuYasha let loose. "WIND-SCAR!"

A lightning-laced shock wave blew away from the sword and into the forest, uprooting trees and carving crevices in the ground. Birds, bats and nameless flying things fled into the sky before the wave.

"Yes!" InuYasha crowed. He shifted his shoulders and firmed his grip; the sword changed to look like it was made of crystal and powered up again. "Diamond Barrage!" This shockwave was laden with crystal shards. "Dragonscale!" The sword now appeared to be made of interlocking steel scales. "Meidou Zangetsuha!" The sword grew dark and stars swirled across it as though one were looking through a window into another world. This time, InuYasha chose not to release the energy, it quietly dissipated and the sword once more looked like gleaming steel, then it collapsed back into the battered relic Bushi-sensei remembered as InuYasha deactivated and put it back in its sheath.

"What was that last?" Bushi-sensei asked. "The Meidou er…"

"Meidou Zangetsuha? It cuts an opening into the Underworld," InuYasha replied. "Waaay too much power for the small fry around here."

"The Underworld?" Bushi-sensei asked, deeply shaken. "What sort of creature requires this?"

"Heh. Not many, and the chances I'll meet another are pretty remote. Still, it's a good thing to have up my sleeve, just in case..."

InuYasha looked out into the forest. The shocked silence was slowly relaxing; here and there, a bird peeped cautiously and a small creature scurried across the ground, rustling the grass. He could still feel dozens of eyes watching him intently, then the feeling ebbed away as the watchers returned to their business. Yep, by tonight, the word will have spread out of the valley and across the mountains into the wild, unpeopled spaces where the stronger youkai roamed. He could expect some challenges from the foolish and arrogant, then they would find it expedient to hunt elsewhere again. His life was back to normal.

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_Author's Note:_

_About that name contest: We had several offerings, and I toyed with running through all the names in the story, but it just didn't work out._

_Congratulations to __spiffy-child__ for providing __**Kenta**__. spiffy-child's explanation was:_

"_From Japanese __健 __(ken) "healthy, strong" and __太 __(ta) "thick, big"._

_I think this is a good name considering the scare they had with his birth."_

_I liked this - it worked with the parents' emotional state and the fact he didn't come through completely unscathed (the one floppy ear that was revealed in this chapter). They would be hoping to bless him with more robustness by giving him this name._

_So, spiffy-child - as the winner, you may choose:_

_The answer to one question _

_OR getting a personal spoiler emailed to you. _

_Let me know what you prefer._

_Finally, a shout-out to all who played. Here are the other suggestions: _

_**Gogaki**__ - this came from the home front where my other half suggested what essentially translates to "Fifth Brat". _

_**Taiki**__ - because every family needs a "Bob". Thanks to __kokoronagomu__ for offering this and the droll explanation why. My biggest problem with this (admittedly arbitrary) was that I felt I had a glut of names starting with "T" and was trying to avoid yet another one._

_slayer123bio__ was very busy, offering all of the following:_

_**Tenshou**__ - Mysterious sun_

_**Karagi**__ - Vacant observer _

_**Kyousei**__ - vigorous learner_

_**Urabito**__ - reverse sinner_

_They are very cool names, but I ultimately felt they required that InuYasha and Kagome have more knowledge about the nature of their new son than average parents could hope to have when their child is born._


End file.
